Daily Mail apologizes, pays Melania Trump $2.9M in libel settlement

The United Kingdom’s Daily Mail and Mail Online have agreed to apologize and pay damages to Melania Trump to settle libel lawsuits brought by the first lady.

According to a statement on the Daily Mail’s website, it “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 modeling.”

{mosads}The story, which ran under the headline “Racy photos and troubling questions about his wife’s past that could derail Trump,” led to a pair of lawsuits, one on each side of the Atlantic.

Among other allegations, The Mail said, “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,” The Mail said.

A source familiar with the settlement told The Wall Street Journal the newspaper had paid the first lady $2.9 million in damages and legal costs.