The Daily Mail has issued an apology to Melania Trump for an article last year that asserted she’d worked as an escort in her early 1990s modelling days – or, as the Daily Mail put it, “provided services beyond simply modelling.”
The article – which ran 20th August 2016 with the headline ‘Racy photos and troubling questions about his wife’s past that could derail Trump‘ – also suggested that she and The Donald had actually met three years before they actually did (at a New York Fashion Week party in 1998), and in fact staged their meeting as a ruse.
“We accept that these allegations about Mrs Trump are not true and we retract and withdraw them,” said the Daily Mail. “We apologise to Mrs Trump for any distress that our publication caused her. To settle Mrs Trump’s two lawsuits against us, we have agreed to pay her damages and costs.”
While the terms of the settlement have not been disclosed, the now FLOTUS had sought compensatory and punitive damages of at least $150 million (AU $199 million), according to the lawsuit.
“Plaintiff had the the unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, as an extremely famous and well-known person, as well as a former professional model and brand spokesperson, and successful businesswoman, to launch a broad-based commercial brand in multiple product categories, each of which could have garnered multi-million dollar business relationships for a multi-year term during which Plaintiff is one of the most photographed women in the world. These product categories would have included, among other things, apparel, accessories, shoes, jewellery, cosmetics, hair care, skin care and fragrance.”
Melania’s lawyer John Kelly said the article was published as a two-page spread and accompanied by an old photo of her standing nude against a wall.
“Readers of the newspaper that day could not fail to miss the article,” he told the court, as reported by the Associated Press.
“The article included false and defamatory claims about the claimant which questioned the nature of her work as a professional model.
“The suggestion that such allegations even merit investigation is deeply offensive and has caused a great deal of upset and distress to the claimant.”
As part of the settlement, the Daily Mail was forced to publish the apology right on the homepage.
Photo: Justin Sullivan / Getty.
