Melania Trump receives apology from HarperCollins over Epstein claim

Melania Trump has received an apology from HarperCollins after it published a book which claimed she was introduced to her husband by Jeffrey Epstein.

The UK publisher withdrew from circulation around 60,000 copies of Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York after coming under pressure from the first lady’s legal team, who said the book spread “malicious, defamatory falsehoods”.

Andrew Lownie’s unauthorised biography of the Duke of York, which came out in August, does not accuse Mrs Trump of any illegal conduct, but claims Epstein “facilitated” her first meeting with Donald Trump.

Mrs Trump’s legal team has disputed the allegation, with a spokesman saying they are “actively ensuring immediate retractions and apologies by those who spread malicious, defamatory falsehoods”.

“The true account of how the first lady met President Trump is in her bestselling book, ‘Melania,’” the spokesman told Axios.

Claims ‘unverified’

Mrs Trump’s memoir, released in October last year, said she was introduced to her future husband at a New York party in 1998 by another person, not Epstein.

HarperCollins responded by removing passages from future print editions and withdrawing copies that contain the references from distribution. The e-book and audiobooks have also been updated to reflect the changes.

“We have, in consultation with the author, removed several passages of the book that referenced unverified claims about the first lady of the United States, Melania Trump,” the publisher said in a statement.

“Copies of the book that included those references are being permanently removed from distribution. HarperCollins UK apologises to the first lady.”

A HarperCollins spokesman said: “We can confirm that several passages from Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York by Andrew Lownie have been removed in consultation with the author. Entitled is published in the UK by HarperCollins. In the US the book is self-published by Mr Lownie.”

Chief executive resigns

Charlie Redmayne, the chief executive of HarperCollins UK, resigned on Tuesday in a surprise shake-up at the publishing giant.

Kate Elton was appointed interim chief executive, while a permanent replacement for Mr Redmayne “will be made in due course”, the company said.

No reason was given for Mr Redmayne’s departure after 12 years at the helm, but it is understood that Mrs Trump’s complaint did not play a role.

Mr Redmayne was approached for comment.

The publisher is the third media organisation to apologise to Mrs Trump for claiming Epstein introduced her to her husband, as the family seeks to distance itself from any association with the late paedophile financier.

In August, Mrs Trump threatened to sue Hunter Biden for repeating the same allegation. A letter from her legal team demanded that the former president’s son retract his comments and issue an apology or face being sued for $1bn (£726m).

Biden attributed the claim about how the Trumps met to Michael Wolff, a journalist who was given sweeping access to the White House during Mr Trump’s first term and has written four books about the US president.

Wolff claimed in an interview with the Daily Beast podcast in July that the first lady was “very involved” in Epstein’s circle and met Mr Trump through a modelling agent linked to both men.

The Daily Beast subsequently removed the podcast segment and a related news article after receiving a letter from Mrs Trump’s lawyers. In a statement it said the story “did not meet our standards” and apologised to the first lady.

Biden has suggested he will not retract his claims.

In her memoir, Mrs Trump said she met her husband at a Fashion Week party at New York’s the Kit Kat Klub, when she saw her friend wave to someone behind her.

“When I turned around, I noticed a man and an attractive blonde woman approaching us,” she wrote. “‘Hi, I’m Donald Trump,’ the man said when he reached my table.”

The Trump administration has been criticised over its failure to release all the files it holds on the case relating to the disgraced financier.

The president has faced increasing scrutiny over his connections to the late sex offender, after the department of justice and FBI concluded in July that he died by suicide and did not possess a high-profile “client list”.

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