Dating rumors began swirling around Kourtney Kardashian and musician John Mayer after the reality star decided to blatantly shoot her shot at the singer on national television.

During a recent appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, Kourtney played a game of “Would You Rather?” during which she chose Mayer over and over again. The seemingly innocent game started real world rumors over a supposed romance between the two.

A tabloid report claimed Kardashian and Mayer connected at a party in December, which fanned the flames of the rumored relationship.

However, John Mayer is throwing cold water on the rumors. He appeared on Andy Cohen’s Radio Andy program and set the record straight, while implying that the rumors may have been started by the Kardashians themselves.

“That happens not to be true. I actually like the Kardashians — they’re very nice people,” the 41-year-old told host Cohen, who questioned where the rumor started. “I gotta be honest with you — little suspicious about the origin of the story. Not sure the call’s not coming from inside the house on this one … it’s diabolical and genius because when people start gossiping about you and someone else and they start putting your picture together, it gets real suggestive. You’re like, ‘Well if I do, everything kinda falls into place ’cause everyone’s already putting us together!’ So it’s a genius idea.”

Mayer then shared the real details of his interaction with Kardashian. “I ran into Kourtney at a GQ party that I kind of crashed towards the end. The only part that made me upset to any degree was that somebody [wrote] that when I saw Kourtney, I said, ‘It was sweet serendipity running into you.’ Which I would never say!” He went on, “But if you’re getting paid to write the stories, if you listen to every John Mayer song and then say, what’s the next thing he might say based on all the lyrics I just read? It might be, ‘It was sweet serendipity running into you’ — but I didn’t say that because that’s hyper corny.”

John Mayer also said he’s done dating celebrities. But we know the first step to confirming a celebrity relationship is denying it. Is this deflection, or fake news? *Shoulder shrugs.*