Melania Trump settles $150m damages claim against Daily Mail over 'escort' claims

Melania Trump has accepted damages and an apology from the Daily Mail newspaper over an article falsely suggesting she once worked as a high-end escort during her modelling career in the 1990s.

The US First Lady had brought a libel claim against Associated Newspapers, publishers of the UK's Daily Mail, at London's High Court.

The article, published during the US election campaign in August last year, ran under the headline "Racy photos and troubling questions about his wife's past that could derail Trump".

The court heard on Wednesday (12 April) the story "included false and defamatory claims" about her "which questioned the nature of her work as a professional model, and republished allegations that she provided services beyond simply modelling".

Melania Trump's lawyer, John Kelly, said allegations printed were not true and "strike at the heart of the claimant's personal integrity and dignity".

"The article also claimed that Mr and Mrs Trump may have met three years before they actually met and 'staged' their actual meeting as a 'ruse'. These allegations about Mrs Trump are not true," he added.

Melania Trump had also filed a lawsuit in February in the US, seeking damages of $150m (£120m) claiming the article had cost her millions of dollars in potential business.

The actual settlement for the libel action in the UK was not disclosed but was reported by Reuters to be worth less than $3m, including legal costs and damages.

The Daily Mail and the paper's website, MailOnline, is to publish a retraction and apology which reads:

The Daily Mail newspaper and the Mail Online/DailyMail.com website published an article on 20th August 2016 about Melania Trump which questioned the nature of her work as a professional model, and republished allegations that she provided services beyond simply modelling. The article included statements that Mrs Trump denied the allegations and Paulo Zampolli, who ran the modelling agency, also denied the allegations, and the article also stated that there was no evidence to support the allegations. The article also claimed that Mr and Mrs Trump may have met three years before they actually met, and 'staged' their actual meeting as a 'ruse'.

We accept that these allegations about Mrs Trump are not true and we retract and withdraw them. We apologise to Mrs Trump for any distress that our publication caused her. To settle Mrs Trump's two lawsuits against us, we have agreed to pay her damages and costs.