AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
HarperCollins UK issued a formal apology to First Lady Melania Trump on Tuesday and pulled copies of a book about Prince Andrew that repeated an unverified claim that Jeffrey Epstein introduced her to Donald Trump.
The apology, the third from a major media outlet in recent months, marks an increasingly aggressive push by Melania Trump’s legal team to stamp out any association between her and the disgraced financier.
The First Lady shared a statement from the publisher on X:
“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,” HarperCollins UK said in the statement. “Copies of the book that included those references are being permanently removed from distribution. HarperCollins UK apologizes to the First Lady.”
The passages appeared in Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, an unauthorized biography of Prince Andrew, an Epstein associate. Though the book did not allege any wrongdoing by Melania Trump, it claimed Epstein “facilitated” her introduction to her husband. Melania’s representatives repeatedly dismissed the claim as “malicious” and “defamatory.”
“The true account of how the first lady met President Trump is in her bestselling book, Melania,” a spokesperson said, adding that the couple met at a New York party in 1998 through another guest.
The retraction follows earlier apologies from The Daily Beast and veteran Democratic strategist James Carville for voicing similar claims.
The post Major Book Publisher Apologizes to Melania Trump for ‘Unverified’ Epstein Claims first appeared on Mediaite.
