LOS ANGELES • Actress Sanaa Lathan bit Beyonce on the face, according to celebrity portal TMZ, which cited sources as saying.

The mystery of who had dared to pull off such an act had sent the music star's vast fanbase into a tizzy, after comedienne Tiffany Haddish revealed to GQ magazine what she witnessed at a party in December following a Jay-Z concert. She did not name the person, saying only that she was an actress.

Sources said the bite was just a playful one.

It occurred when Lathan, 46, who starred in the movie American Assassin last year, was talking to Jay-Z, but in a manner that Beyonce did not like.

She confronted Lathan, who dismissed any suggestion of inappropriate behaviour, before planting a bite on the singer's face.

Accused of the act, Lathan has defended herself, tweeting: "Y'all are funny. Under no circumstances did I bite Beyonce and if I did, it would have been a love bite."

Amateur sleuths had also seized on a remark by Haddish in a comedy show that the biter was a former girlfriend of French Montana. Talk had it that Lathan and the New York rapper were an item back in 2015.