HarperCollins UK apologized to First Lady Melania Trump on Tuesday after it published “unverified claims” about her in a book including the fake assertion she was introduced to President Donald Trump through convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The win is the latest in a long battle fought by Melania Trump with book publishers and commentators getting them to respect the truth and not publish fallacies about her and her husband.
“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 wrote in a public statement of contrition.
“Copies of the book that include those references are being permanently removed from distribution. HarperCollins UK apologizes to the First Lady,” the statement added.
The First Lady shared the statement, which was first posted on HarperCollins UK’s X account, to her nearly four million followers on X.
Fox News reports, “The book, which focuses on Prince Andrew, examines the disgraced royal’s ties to the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Lownie alleged that Epstein introduced Donald Trump to Melania. Representatives for the first lady rejected the claim, pointing to her own book which states she met her husband at New York City’s Kit Kat Club in 1998 and was not introduced to him by Epstein.”
Melania Trump’s team has previously taken swift, decisive action towards those who’ve promoted the false claim.
Back in July, The Daily Beast retracted an article it had published based on comments made by Michael Wolff, who echoed the fabricated Epstein connection, as Breitbart News reported.
The article’s removal, accompanied by a rare apology, followed a letter from Melania Trump’s attorney to the leftwing outlet as part of her constant fight for truth in public life.
In August, the Hill notes Democratic strategist James Carville apologized and took down a YouTube video where he also alleged Melania Trump met the president through Epstein. She met him at New York’s Kit Kat Klub, according to her memoir.
“After the episode, we received a letter from Melania Trump’s lawyer,” Carville said in a subsequent podcast episode.
“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.”
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