Bill Murray denies dating Kelis but says rumors ‘raised my cred’

Bill Murray is shutting down rumors that his love life is better than yours.

The Groundhog Day actor recently discussed the gossip that arose in 2023 about a possible romantic entanglement between him and “Milkshake” singer Kelis. “I was fascinated, I met this girl named Kelis,” Murray recalled in an interview with Sway Calloway on SiriusXM’s Sway in the Morning. “I got great press that I was dating her, which really raised my cred a lot.”

Murray said he’d been enamored with the 1999 Ol’ Dirty Bastard song “Got Your Money,” which features Kelis singing the chorus. “That song just kills me,” he explained. “I love that video. And I kept going, ‘That’s the silliest thing. How did I miss that when it came out in the first place? It’s so crazy.’ And I’m going, ‘Who is that girl with the red hair?’ and it was Kelis.”

The Rushmore star recalled being so taken with the song that he felt he had to connect with Kelis eventually. “I just had to meet her some time,” Murray said. “She turns out to be spectacular. Actually, I spoke with her recently. She bought land in Kenya, in Africa. She’s in Africa. She is not afraid of the dark. She just goes out there and goes, ‘Well, I think I’ll just go to Africa and start a farm.'”

After reiterating that he never dated the R&B star when Calloway asked him about it point blank, Murray joked that the possibility is always on the table. “Hey, you know, one of us could be on the rebound any second,” he said. “She might need a plowman down there.”

Kelis previously dismissed chatter about her rumored relationship with Murray on Instagram. After a commenter asked the singer in 2023 to”address these Bill Murray allegations,” she wrote, “lol no babe, I wouldn’t bother at all.”

Elsewhere in the Sway interview, Murray refuted rumors that fellow Saturday Night Live alum Eddie Murphy turned down the opportunity to join Ghostbusters, instead opting to make Beverly Hills Cop around the same time. “I don’t know anything about that,” Murray said. “There’s a lot of stories like that. I’m told that I was supposed to be Batman, which makes me laugh.”

Murray continued, “I think that’s probably not a true story. I don’t think that’s a true story. Ernie Hudson got the job, and Ernie’s a super-cool guy. He’s my friend. But it wasn’t like it was between those two, I don’t think. It didn’t happen that way at all. It wasn’t that way.”

Watch Murray’s full Sway in the Morning interview above.