LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s Daily Mail agreed on Wednesday to pay Melania Trump an undisclosed sum and issue an apology after it published an article saying the U.S. First Lady had offered “services beyond simply modeling” in her former job.
President Donald Trump’s wife, 46, had sued the publisher of the Daily Mail in Britain and also filed a $150 million (120 million pound) lawsuit against it in New York, claiming the article had cost her millions of dollars in potential business.
A person familiar with the situation said the settlement was worth less than $3 million, including legal costs and damages.
The Daily Mail, which runs what it calls the world’s largest English-language newspaper website, apologized for the article on Wednesday and issued a retraction on its home page.
“An article on 20th August 2016 about Melania Trump... questioned the nature of her work as a professional model, and republished allegations that she provided services beyond simply modeling,” publisher Associated Newspapers said.
“We accept that these allegations about Mrs Trump are not true and we retract and withdraw them .... we have agreed to pay her damages and costs.”
At the High Court in London, Trump’s lawyer said the article, headlined “Racy photos and troubling questions about his wife’s past that could derail Trump”, was published as a two-page spread and accompanied by an old photo of Melania Trump standing naked with her front against a wall but looking back at the camera.
“Readers of the newspaper that day could not fail to miss the article”, John Kelly told the court. “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,” he said.
Read the join statement from both parties below:
“In September 2016, Melania Trump sued the Daily Mail newspaper in the United Kingdom and Mail Online in the United States. The legal actions concerned allegations published in late August 2016 questioning the nature of work undertaken by Mrs. Trump in the 1990s when she worked as a professional model, and republished allegations that she provided services beyond simply modeling. The article included statements that Mrs. Trump denied the allegations and Paulo Zampolli, who ran the modelling agency, also denied the allegations, and the article also stated that there was no evidence to support the allegations. The article also claimed that Mr. and Mrs. Trump may have met three years before they actually met, and “staged” their actual meeting as a “ruse.”
Daily Mail and Mail Online have retracted the above statements complained of by Mrs. Trump. Daily Mail and Mail Online have agreed to print the Retraction and Apology, set forth below, in the Daily Mail newspaper, at DailyMail.com and at DailyMail.co.uk. Daily Mail and Mail Online also have agreed to pay damages and costs to Melania Trump.”
Melania Trump - An Apology
The Daily Mail newspaper and the Mail Online/DailyMail.com website published an article on 20th August 2016 about Melania Trump which questioned the nature of her work as a professional model, and republished allegations that she provided services beyond simply modelling. The article included statements that Mrs. Trump denied the allegations and Paulo Zampolli, who ran the modelling agency, also denied the allegations, and the article also stated that there was no evidence to support the allegations. The article also claimed that Mr and Mrs Trump may have met three years before they actually met, and “staged” their actual meeting as a “ruse.”
We accept that these allegations about Mrs Trump are not true and we retract and withdraw them. 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.