Did Harry Styles Spit on Chris Pine? Actor Reveals What Really Happened at the Venice Film Festival

Many months ago, the internet was in an uproar with questions regarding a convincing video taken at the Venice Film Festival that appeared to show Harry Styles spitting into the lap of his Don’t Worry Darling costar Chris Pine. And finally, we have some answers.

In a Wednesday (March 1) video interview with Esquire, Pine finally revealed what actually happened in that viral moment from Darling‘s world premiere. “Harry did not spit on me,” he began. “Harry’s a very, very kind guy.”

“I had no idea what happened,” he continued, recalling how his publicist woke him up in the middle of his flight home, insisting they needed to release a statement regarding the spit-cident. “She showed me the thing, and it does look, indeed, like Harry spitting on me. He didn’t spit on me.”

Pine had previously denied that the “As It Was” pop star spat on him, with his reps releasing a statement almost immediately after the video started going viral in September that it was simply an “odd online illusion.” This is the first time, however, that either costar has provided an explanation for what Styles really did in the clip, if not hocking a loogie on the Star Trek actor’s lap.

“He leaned down, and I think he said, ‘It’s just words, isn’t it?'” Pine revealed in the new interview. “‘Cause we had this little joke. We’re all jet-lagged, we’re all trying to answer these questions. Sometimes when you’re doing these press things, your brain gets befuddled and you start speaking gibberish. And we had a joke: ‘It’s just words, man.'”

The “Watermelon Sugar” singer has also previously addressed SpitGate, as it’s referred to by some corners of the Twitterverse, in his own way. At his first concert back from the film festival, Styles joked with his audience that he’d “just popped very quickly to Venice to spit on Chris Pine.”

Watch Pine explain what really went down with the Grammy-winning singer at the Venice Film Festival below: