UK Paper: 'Unreservedly' Sorry for Article on Melania Trump

'Telegraph' pays damages on story it now concedes had many false statements
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jan 26, 2019 7:30 AM CST
UK Paper: 'Unreservedly' Sorry for Article on Melania Trump
In this Nov. 28, 2018, file photo, Melania Trump speaks during a town hall meeting on opioid addiction at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.   (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)

Britain's Telegraph newspaper has apologized and paid damages to US first lady Melania Trump after publishing an article it says contains many false statements. The newspaper said Saturday it apologizes "unreservedly" to Trump and her family for any embarrassment caused by the content of a cover story published Jan. 19 in the newspaper's weekly magazine supplement, per the AP. "As a mark of our regret we have agreed to pay Mrs. Trump substantial damages, as well as her legal costs," the Telegraph says. The newspaper didn't disclose the size of the settlement with the first lady. The Telegraph says it falsely characterized Trump's father's personality, falsely reported the reasons she left an architecture program, and falsely reported her career as a model was unsuccessful before she met Donald Trump.

"We accept that Mrs. Trump was a successful professional model in her own right before she met her husband and obtained her own modeling work without his assistance," the newspaper says, also acknowledging it had incorrectly reported the year when the couple first met. "The claim that Mrs. Trump cried on election night is also false," the Telegraph says. It also retracted the statement that Trump's father, mother, and sister had relocated to New York in 2005 to live in buildings owned by Trump. The Telegraph is one of Britain's leading broadsheet newspapers and is traditionally aligned with the Conservative Party. It's not the first time Trump has successfully challenged the British press: She received damages and an apology from the Daily Mail in 2017 after bringing a libel action against the popular tabloid.

(More Melania Trump stories.)

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