(Credit:TessieChester via DeviantArt)

OK! magazine has admitted it published a fake story about actress Jennifer Lawrence.

The Feb. 3 story claimed that actor Nicholas Hoult proposed to Lawrence on Christmas Eve.

As evidence, OK! quoted an anonymous “insider” talking about the alleged engagement and how Lawrence “cried and screamed” when Hoult proposed, according to an MTV News story about OK!‘s claims. The couple have been dating off-and-on.

Gossip Cop published a photo of the apology but slammed OK! for trying “to misdirect its readers” by headlining the apology “Jennifer & Nicholas Still So In Love.”

The printed apology statement reads:

“OK! reported in our February 3 issue that Jennifer Lawrence’s boyfriend Nicholas Hoult, 24, proposed to the 23-year-old actress on Christmas Eve at her family’s home in Kentucky. We have since learned that Nicholas was back in his native England during the holidays. We apologize for the error.”

OK! admitted that this was “the second time in three months that OK!” made the bogus claim, according to E! News. According to Gossip Cop, which noted it previously debunked the engagement claim, in November, OK! falsely claimed the couple got engaged and Lawrence was pregnant.

E! quoted an OK! representative as admitting the magazine didn’t fact check its claims with either actor:

“OK! magazine has issued an apology for completely falsifying a cover story claiming that Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult were engaged over the Christmas holiday, in front of her family, and with a $250,000 engagement ring

“Not only was the basis of this cover story completely fabricated but it is in fact the second time in three months that OK! has published a false story of an engagement between the two parties.

“The fictional scenario described in the cover story, without ever checking with a representative of Lawrence or Hoult, was recklessly published to sell gossip magazines.”

iMediaEthics has written to OK! for confirmation of the above statement and for more information concerning its apology. We’ll update with any response.