First Lady Melania Trump scored a legal and moral victory after bringing British newspaper the Daily Mail to its knees.
The Daily Mail apologized and agreed to pay $2.9 million in damages to settle a libel lawsuit Melania had filed over a bogus story claiming she had worked as a call girl/paid escort during her early days as a model.
Melania Trump Sued for $150 Million
Melania’s lawsuit had originally sought compensatory and punitive damages of at least $150 million. While neither party disclosed financial terms, sources told the Wall Street Journal the Daily Mail will pay Melania $2.9 million.
The Daily Mail retracted the story and issued an apology, acknowledging that its defamatory article was false:
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 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.
Story Falsely Claimed Melania Was an Escort
The original Daily Mail story was published in August 2016 under the headline “Racy photos and troubling questions about his wife’s past that could derail Trump.”
The article included old nude modeling photos of Melania to play up the Daily Mail’s trashy narrative to hurt Donald Trump’s presidential bid (obviously, it failed miserably).
Shortly after the article was published, Melania issued vehement denials and sent the Daily Mail cease-and-desist letters to retract the story. When the paper refused, the First Lady unleashed her legal team.
Mrs. Trump has said in multiple interviews that she’s not bothered by haters because she’s a lot stronger than people give her credit for.
“People don’t really know me. I’m very strong, I’m very confident,” she said. “I can handle everything. Don’t feel sorry for me.”
Melania wins ‘substantial’ money damages, apology over Telegraph’s fake-news hit piece
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Samantha Chang is a senior staff writer for BizPac Review. She is a financial editor and lawyer based in New York City.
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