„We apologize unreservedly to The First Lady and her family for any embarrassment caused by our publication of these allegations.“
A British newspaper issued an apology to First Lady Melania Trump, wife of President Donald Trump, after admitting it published an article that “contained a number of false statements.”
The Telegraph removed the article, which served as the cover story of its Jan. 19 magazine and was titled “The mystery of Melania.”
Assuming an omnipresent air, the author of the article, conspiracy theorist and Newsweek reporter Nina Burleigh, claimed to know of a slew of secrets about the first lady in the article, writing about her past dating back decades but relying heavily on the accounts of four people, only half of whom were fully identified: an unnamed source, a former classmate of Trump at secondary school in Slovenia, an unnamed Slovenian architect, and a fashion photographer.
The rest of the headline read: “White House insiders, Slovenian school friends, and photographers reveal all.”
Burleigh also quoted a recent book by Michael Wolff published about the Trump presidency and which has been widely discredited.
The article appeared to be an excerpt from a forthcoming book from Burleigh titled: “Golden Handcuffs: The Secret History of Trump’s Women.” The article has been removed from a number of websites that republished it or quoted from it but remains up on some, including some blogs that republished it in full.
In its apology, the Telegraph wrote: “We have been asked to make clear that the article contained a number of false statements which we accept should not have been published.”
Detailing a number of the false statements, the outlet added: “We accept that Mrs. Trump was a successful professional model in her own right before she met her husband and obtained her own modeling work without his assistance.
