Austin Butler Is Talking About Those Emily Ratajkowski Dating Rumors

Austin Butler has a new outlook on how to deal with the gossip around his love life. The actor, who’s previously kept silent about any rumored romances, is ready to be blunt about his current relationship status. Namely, he’s getting real about what’s going on between himself and Emily Ratajkowski.

The pair sparked dating rumors about two and a half months ago when they were photographed cuddling up next to each other at a New York City bar on Sept. 5. This was a week after they were also spotted together at an afterparty for Butler’s movie Caught Stealing.

However, Butler reminded everyone that just because one hot celeb grabs drinks with another hot celeb, it doesn’t always mean a love story. “The true answer is that I have a lot of friends, and we’re friends and we had dinner, and that we’re friends,” Butler said when asked about the Ratajkowski pics in his Nov. 18 Vanity Fair profile.

He refrained from dispelling the rumors at first because when the chatter first began, his urge was to disengage. “I just wanted to hide,” Butler said. But he’s since changed how he wants to deal with these things: “I’m going to live a constricted small life because I’m afraid of what other people are going to say or what they’re going to think?”

Butler confirmed in the profile that he is currently single. He dealt with a similar situation where fans believed he was dating a close friend shortly before the Ratajkowski pics, when unsubstantiated gossip arose that he was seeing his Caught Stealing co-star Zoë Kravitz.

While he may not have a partner at the moment, Butler admitted that he does have marriage and even fatherhood on his mind these days. “You get one life,” he said, “so how can I allow that to hopefully make me a better friend and a better partner — and a better husband, one day, and a better father, one day, God willing?”