2LT International News

LONDON, UK – In another blow to the media, London’s The Daily Telegraph has been forced to apologise to U.S. First Lady Melania Trump and pay her substantial damages and legal costs following an article the newspaper published last weekend.

The pay-out, the apology, and a very public retraction follows the recent put-down of a Buzzfeed article by U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller.

“Following last Saturday’s (19 January 2019) Telegraph magazine cover story “The mystery of Melania,” we have been asked to make clear that the article contained a number of false statements which we accept should not have been published,” The Telegraph said in a statement published on Saturday.

“Mrs Trump’s father was not a fearsome presence and did not control the family. Mrs Trump did not leave her Design and Architecture course at University relating to the completion of an exam, as alleged in the article, but rather because she wanted to pursue a successful career as a professional model.”

“Mrs Trump was not struggling in her modelling career before she met Mr Trump, and she did not advance in her career due to the assistance of Mr Trump,” The Daily Telegraph statement said.

“We accept that Mrs Trump was a successful professional model in her own right before she met her husband and obtained her own modelling work without his assistance. Mrs Trump met Mr Trump in 1998, not in 1996 as stated in the article. The article also wrongly claimed that Mrs Trump’s mother, father and sister relocated to New York in 2005 to live in buildings owned by Mr Trump. They did not.”

“The claim that Mrs Trump cried on election night is also false,” the newspaper admitted.

“We apologise unreservedly to The First Lady and her family for any embarrassment caused by our publication of these allegations. As a mark of our regret we have agreed to pay Mrs Trump substantial damages as well as her legal costs.”

In a statemenrt released on Saturday, a spokeswoman for Melania Trump said: “She will not sit by as people and media outlets make up lies and false assertions in a race for ratings or to sell tabloid headlines.”

The Daily Telegraph has been publishing for more than 162 years and was recently named the leading quality news brand in the UK.