Jabin Botsford for The Washington Post
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In a three-paragraph apology Saturday, the Telegraph retracted several claims that were published last week in the paper's magazine publication. "The mystery of Melania," which is no longer online, reported that Trump was struggling in her modeling career before she met her future husband, Donald Trump, and that her career advanced only after his assistance. That was false, the paper said.
"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 paper said, adding later: "We apologise unreservedly to The First Lady and her family for any embarrassment caused by our publication of these allegations."
The Washington Post reported last year that Trump was a "working model" who was initially not widely known in the highly competitive New York fashion world and that her association with Donald Trump, whom she began dating in 1998, raised her profile.
The Telegraph's magazine cover story, which was published on Jan. 19, was an excerpt from the book "The Golden Handcuffs: The Secret History of Trump's Women," by journalist Nina Burleigh. It was published in October.
Burleigh didn't respond to a request for comment from The Post on Saturday.
In a comment to the Daily Beast, Burleigh suggested that the retraction was over fears of "Gawker slayer Charles Harder," the California lawyer who represented the first lady in a defamation lawsuit against the Daily Mail, another British publication, and is representing the president in lawsuits against adult-film actress Stormy Daniels. Harder is best known for helping a Silicon Valley billionaire successfully sue the gossip website Gawker, leading to its demise.
"The book has been out since October, and excerpted widely by various U.S. publications without a peep of objection. I stand by my reporting," Burleigh told the Daily Beast.
Trump's spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, said Saturday that the first lady "often refers to opportunists out to advance themselves" by destroying her name and image. She said media outlets have lied and made false assertions "in a race for ratings or to sell tabloid headlines."
The story in question also reported that Trump's father, Viktor Knavs, was a fearsome presence who controlled the family, and that the first lady left a university in Slovenia, where she was studying design and architecture, because of an exam. The paper said those assertions were false, and that Trump left to pursue a modeling career.
The Telegraph's apology further said that Melania and Donald Trump met in New York in 1998, not in 1996, as the story stated. The article also stated that Melania Trump's father and sister relocated to New York in 2005 to live in buildings the president owned and that the first lady cried on the night of the 2016 presidential election. Those statements, too, were false, the Telegraph said.
This is not the first time the first lady has received an apology and damages from publications over stories about her career.
In April 2017, the British tabloid the Daily Mail apologized for an article that alleged "she provided services beyond simply modeling," according to a statement released at that time. Melania Trump filed and later settled defamation lawsuits, with the Daily Mail agreeing to pay an unspecified amount of damages.
The first lady also sued a Maryland blogger who reported about unfounded rumors that she once worked as a high-end escort. Trump settled in February 2017, and the blogger, Webster Tarpley, agreed to apologize and pay her a "substantial sum."
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