NEW YORK (DPA) - Natalie Portman and Moby remember their time together, if that is what it was, very differently.

In his new memoir, Then It Fell Apart, Moby, 53, has fond memories of Portman, 37, alleging the pair dated when he was 33 and she was 20.

But Oscar winner Portman does not recall "kissing under the centuries-old oak trees" at her alma mater, Harvard University, nor leading the singer "to her dorm room (where they) lay down next to each other on her small bed".

In a Harper's Bazaar article published on Tuesday (May 21), Portman noted that Moby had fudged her age.

His book says they met in early September 1999, meaning Portman "definitely wasn't (20)", she explained. "I was a teenager. I had just turned 18. There was no fact-checking from him or his publisher - it almost feels deliberate.

"There are many factual errors and inventions. I would have liked him or his publisher to reach out to fact-check."

She adamantly denied the singer's claims that he "tried to be her boyfriend".

Portman, who enjoyed Moby's music at the time, attended one of his shows shortly after graduating from high school. When they met after the performance, she recalls that he said "let's be friends".

"He was on tour and I was working, shooting a film, so we only hung out a handful of times before I realised that this was an older man who was interested in me in a way that felt inappropriate."

In response to the article, Moby took to Instagram on Wednesday, posting a photo of the pair from back in the day.

The photo, which shows a shirtless Moby with his arm around a smiling Portman, is captioned: "I recently read a gossip piece where Natalie Portman said that we'd never dated. This confused me, as we did, in fact, date."

Moby insists that after their romance fizzled, they "remained friends for years".

Though fond of Portman, he "can't figure out why she would actively misrepresent the truth about our (albeit brief) involvement".

He maintains his written portrayal of their relationship is "accurate, with lots of corroborating photo evidence".

"I completely respect Natalie's possible regret in dating me (to be fair, I would probably regret dating me too), but it doesn't alter the actual factual of our brief romantic history."