Barry Keoghan responds to cheating rumors, reveals isolation.

says the relentless abuse he endured after being wrongly accused of cheating on ex-girlfriend Sabrina Carpenter turned him into a recluse. 

The Irish actor had broken into mainstream cinema with a starring role in director Emerald Fennell's when he embarked on a short-lived relationship with Carpenter in 2023. 

But he felt the wrath of Carpenter's loyal fans after gossip site DeuxMoi intimated he had cheated on her with American influencer Breckie Hill - an accusation he strenuously denies. 

Appearing on 's Friends Keep Secrets podcast, Keoghan, 33, said the prolonged abuse, much of it centred on his looks, made him reluctant to venture out in public. 

He said: 'I have been avoiding stuff. I’ve stopped socialising. And again, it’s because there was a [cheating] narrative that’s not true.

'I never confirmed or said anything about it, and, you know, I just disappeared.' 

He added: 'I don’t want to ever bring anyone else into it, but unfortunately having a relationship in the public eye, we all know this, it gets put out there, and it’s amplified.

'A girl made a video and then the girl actually made [another] video and went, "Sorry for making that up," but no one seemed to latch on to that video.' 

Keoghan was referring to a video made by Hill in which she denied the cheating rumours and admitted to having never met the actor.

Despite closing his own social media platforms, Keoghan still finds himself reading the negative comments about his alleged infidelity. 

'I’m not on Instagram or Twitter or any of that but I still go on and have a little . . . I go on my brother’s account. I can access it that way,' he said. 

'I do go on and have a look because I’m curious, but there’s a lot of hatred towards me for just looking like this. It’s just crazy. There’s videos on TikTok that literally go, "I hate him."

'I went through addiction myself and then sobriety, and to battle all of that, to then want to drag that person down...'

Keoghan's young life has been blighted by addiction, with the actor's mother Debbie dying of a heroin overdose when he was 12 years old. 

The actor has also struggled with his own issues, notably with alcohol, but says he is now clean and sober after multiple attempts at recovery. 

'I’m clean now,' he said. 'But my mum died at 32 from heroin and my dad passed away. But the curiosity of still wanting to do this, for me, was absolutely . . .

'It took me three attempts at rehab and it was finally Malibu, The Pointe, where there was a sudden switch and it was when I was 32, the same age my mum was. Like, "That’s it, I’m not doing it."'

He added: 'I don’t do anything. I used to try to justify it by going, "Maybe I’ll be off the drink for a while," but now I like to think I’m allergic to alcohol because my reaction is: Cocaine. That reaction can make me die.'