Melania Trump and Daily Mail Settle Her Libel Suits -
By THE NEW YORK TIMESAPRIL 12, 2017
LONDON — The Daily Mail apologized to Melania Trump on Wednesday and agreed to pay damages to settle two lawsuits she had filed over an article last year asserting
that the professional modeling agency she worked for in the 1990s had also been an escort service.
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.’ ”
The statement noted that the retraction and apology would be published in The Daily Mail and in its American and British online versions, and it added
that the newspaper would pay damages and the costs of the litigation.
“The article included statements that Mrs. Trump denied the allegations and Paolo Zampolli, who ran the modeling agency, also denied the allegations, and the article also stated
that there was no evidence to support the allegations.
Instead, it said that the article had harmed her opportunities “to launch a broad-based commercial brand in multiple product categories,” noting
that “the plaintiff is one of the most photographed women in the world,” and asserting that “the plaintiff’s brand has lost significant value.”
On Jan. 20, the day Mr. Trump was sworn in as president, the White House altered its online biography of Mrs. Trump, after complaints
that the original wording had promoted her line of jewelry.
“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 statement said.