ALICIA KEYS DENIES BREAKING UP SWIZZ AND HIS EX-WIFE MASHONDA.

*Alicia Keys is trying to squash ongoing talk that she began dating husband Swizz Beatz while he was still married.

The music producer and singer Mashonda separated in 2008, just before Beatz, real name Kasseem Dean, began seeing Keys.

The “Girl on Fire” hitmaker has been dogged by rumors she broke up the former couple’s four-year marriage, but she claims to have done nothing wrong.

“(Mashonda and Beatz) were apart for some time before we ever got together,” she tells Jet magazine, (but) that doesn’t matter to those who take pleasure in trying to knock others down.”

And Keys, who exchanged vows with Beatz in 2010, insists she is tired of having to defend herself to the media: “There’s no need to fight what’s not true.”