HarperCollins UK issued a formal apology to First Lady Melania Trump for publishing “unverified claims” that she was introduced to President Trump by the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“HarperCollins UK recently published a book by Andrew Lownie titled ‘Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York.’ We have, in consultation with the author, removed passages of the book that referenced unverified claims about the First Lady of the United States Melania Trump,” HarperCollins UK said in a statement Tuesday. “Copies of the book that include those references are being permanently removed from distribution. HarperCollins UK apologizes to the First Lady.”
The unauthorized biography of Prince Andrew delves into his connections with Jeffrey Epstein. Though author Andrew Lownie made no accusations against Melania Trump, he claimed Epstein had introduced her to Donald Trump.
The First Lady shared the publisher’s apology on X, and her team called the claim “malicious” and “defamatory.” Her team also told Mediaite the true story—detailed in her book Melania—is that she met Donald Trump at New York’s Kit Kat Club in 1998, not through Epstein.
The apology follows a broader effort by Melania Trump’s lawyers to challenge media outlets repeating the false Epstein claim. In July, The Daily Beast retracted and apologized for an article that cited Michael Wolff, who had made the same allegation.
The Daily Beast‘s statement read:
“The Daily Beast recently published a story headlined ‘Melania Trump ‘Very Involved’ in Epstein Scandal: Author’ based on an interview with Michael Wolff. Upon reflection, we have determined that the article did not meet our standards and has therefore been removed from our platforms. In response to a letter from the first lady’s attorneys, The Daily Beast has also removed a portion of an episode of The Daily Beast Podcast titled ‘Trump’s Epstein Scandal Can’t Stop Won’t Stop’ referencing the first lady. The first lady points to her bestselling book ‘Melania’ as the definitive account of her life story. We apologize to the first lady and our readers.”
Veteran Democrat strategist James Carville also mentioned the claim on his podcast and similarly issued an apology and retraction, with his statement being the following:
“In last week’s podcast episode, we spoke with [journalist] Judd Legum. After the episode, we received a letter from Melania Trump’s lawyer. He took issue with our title of one of those YouTube videos from that episode and a couple of comments I made about the first lady. We took a look at what they complained about, and we took down the video and edited out those comments from the episode. I also take back these statements and apologize.”
