Hollywood star Chris Pine has doubled down on claims former One Direction singer Harry Styles didn't spit on him at the Venice Film Festival and has finally revealed what was actually said at the time.
The co-stars were promoting their movie ‘Don’t Worry Darling’, which was directed by Olivia Wilde.
Speculation was rife after a clip from the event went viral which appeared to show the former 1D man, 29, send a big ball of spit in the 42-year-old's direction as he took his seat.
Footage shared by a number of fans showed a dapper-looking Styles in a blue suit and light blue shirt with a huge collar make his way to his assigned seat while the audience applauded.
As he did so, Pine, who was wearing a light brown suit jacket, beige trousers and a bow tie, clapped his co-star before suddenly stopping after Harry prepared to take his seat, reports mirror.co.uk.
Some fans believed his look of disbelief at the time - which was followed by a look of stunned laughter - was due to an unsavoury act of alleged spitting by the singer-turned-actor.
But Pine has once again rebuffed these claims, and went as far as calling Styles a "very, very kind guy".
"I had no idea what happened," Pine recalled in a recent chat with Esquire. "She (his publicist) showed me the thing, and it does look, indeed, like Harry's spitting on me. He didn't spit on me."
Opening up further on the moment, Pine finally revealed what was actually said at the time in a bid to bring an end to all the speculation that had since followed.
He continued: "I think what he said is he leaned down and I think he said, 'It's just words isn't it?'
"Cause we had this little joke. 'Cause we're all jet-lagged, we're all trying to answer these questions that, sometimes, when you're doing these press things, your brain goes all befuddled and you start speaking gibberish.
“And we had a joke, 'It's just words, man’."