Moby | Credit: Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images

Turns Out Moby Probably Isn’t Related to ‘Moby Dick’ Author Herman Melville

In a shocking turn of events, it turns out Moby may not, in fact, be related to Moby Dick author Herman Melville.

The American super-producer, real name Richard Melville Hall, has long been spinning the yarn that he was nick-named ‘Moby’ after Melville’s murderous fictional white whale, by virtue of being the author’s great-great-great-nephew. But a new investigative podcast called The Genealogy Detective now reckons the claims are a little, uh, fishy.

Moby & J.P. Bimeni – ‘Should Sleep’

In their new three-part series, Genealogy Detective hosts Mary Duffy and Adam Mellion did some family tree sleuthing, tracking down both Moby and Melville’s relos to see if they could find a familial link between the two. No such link was found.

It’s not the first time Moby has been accused of telling a whale of a tale. Back in 2019, he released a memoir dubbed Then It Fell Apart, in which he bragged about having a relationship with a teenage Natalie Portman when he was a 33-year-old man. Portman later denied Moby’s claims, labelling him “creepy” and “inappropriate”.

However, the podcast release was seemingly well-timed for Moby, with the extra publicity coinciding with the release of his new J.P. Bimeni collab ‘Should Sleep’, which you can stream up above.

Further Reading

Moby Responds To Natalie Portman Labelling Him ‘Creepy’ & ‘Inappropriate’, By Still Insisting They Dated

Moby Got Some More Vegan Tattoos In Case You Weren’t Aware He’s Vegan

Moby Cancels Book Tour, Is “Going Away For A while”

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