Jimmy Kimmel Jokingly Asks Malala Yousafzai If Harry Styles Spit on Chris Pine at Oscars 2023

Rich Polk/Variety via Getty; Rodin Eckenroth/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Jimmy Kimmel; Malala Yousafzai

Malala Yousafzai has no comment on Spitgate 2022.

On Sunday, the 25-year-old human-rights activist was jokingly asked by Oscars 2023 host Jimmy Kimmel from her seat in the audience at the Dolby Theatre about the supposed saliva-fueled beef between Don't Worry Darling costars Chris Pine and Harry Styles — a rumor that Pine, 42, recently shot down.

"Your work on human rights and education for women and children is an inspiration. As the youngest Nobel Prize winner in history, I was wondering, do you think Harry Styles spit on Chris Pine?" deadpanned Kimmel, 55, reading a supposed question from a fan.

"I only talk about peace," Yousafzai responded to the host as her fellow audience members laughed.

RELATED: Oscars 2023: See the Complete List of Winners

The hilarious moment came after a recent "Explain This" video interview for Esquire, in which Pine addressed the viral conspiracy theory that Styles, 29, spit on him at a screening of Don't Worry Darling while Pine sat between the pop star and director/costar Olivia Wilde.

"Harry did not spit on me," said Pine, whose rep previously denied that it happened in a statement to PEOPLE. "Harry's a very kind guy."

"I'm flying back from Venice and I'm sleeping, having a great time on the plane, I love planes, and [my publicist] wakes me up in a, you know, state and said, 'We have to craft a message about what happened in Venice,'" the Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves actor continued. "And I was like, 'About what?' 'About Harry spitting on you,' which I had no idea what happened."

Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Olivia Wilde, Chris Pine, Harry Styles and Gemma Chan

He added, "She showed me the thing and it does look, indeed, like Harry's spitting on me. He didn't spit on me."

"He leaned down and I think he said, 'It's just words, isn't it?' Because we had this little joke, we're all jet-lagged, we're all trying to answer these questions, and sometimes when you're doing these press things your brain goes befuddled and you start speaking jibberish," explained Pine. "And we had a joke, 'It's just words, man.'"

RELATED VIDEO: Harry Styles Jokes During His Concert That He "Popped Very Quickly to Venice to Spit on Chris Pine"

Yousafzai was at the Oscars to support Stranger at the Gate, a film she produced that was nominated for Best Documentary Short Subject.

Born in Mingora, Pakistan, Yousafzai was 15 when a Taliban gunman boarded her school bus and shot her in the face in 2012. Despite the injury, she never stopped fighting for girls education, going on to win the Nobel Peace Prize at the age of 17.

"Eight years after she received the #NobelPeacePrize @Malala continues to stand up for girls' rights to education," the official Twitter account for the esteemed prize wrote in honor of her birthday, going on to share a special message she wrote when she visited the Nobel Institute in Norway back in 2014.

"I will continue my fight for the education of every child," she wrote in the message, adding, "I will not stop until I see every child in school."

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human-interest stories.

The Oscars are airing live on ABC on Sunday, March 12, at 8 p.m. ET.