Melania Trump accepts damages from Daily Mail over model claims

The action was against Associated Newspapers, publishers of the Daily Mail.

The amount of damages were not disclosed in court, although Sky News understands the total payment of damages and costs is believed to come to less than $3m (£2.4m).

An article published in the newspaper and on Mail Online last August “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”, the court heard.

Her lawyer John Kelly said the story included statements that Mrs Trump denied the allegations and Paulo Zampolli, who ran the modelling agency, also denied the claims.

The article, he said, also said there was no evidence to support the allegations.

Mr Kelly told Mr Justice Nichol: “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’.”

He said the allegations about Mrs Trump were not true – and “strike at the heart of the claimant’s personal integrity and dignity”.

Catrin Evans QC, for the publishers, told the judge: “The defendant acknowledges that these claims about the claimant are untrue, and we retract and withdraw them.

“The defendant is here today publicly to set the record straight, and to apologise to the claimant for any distress and embarrassment that the articles may have caused her.” – news.sky.com