WSJ reports Trump had affair while Melania pregnant with model whose silence was bought
The Wall Street Journal reports that Donald Trump had an affair with a Playboy model whose silence was bought by the National Enquirer with a $150,000 payment.
The Journal, citing documents and “people familiar with the matter,” reports that in August, the tabloid paid $150,000 to Karen McDougal, the 1998 Playmate of the Year who said she enjoyed a consensual relationship with Trump in 2006—a year after his wedding to his third and current wife, Melania.
The Journal categorizes the exchange as a “catch and kill,” where the tabloid bought her story to silence her. A source tells the Journal that despite paying out six figures for the story, the Enquirer’s parent company, American Media, “didn’t intend to run it.”
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The company confirmed in a statement to the Journal that the money was for the “exclusive life rights to any relationship she has had with a then-married man,” but it declined to identify the man and denied killing the story. The Journal filled in the blanks, identifying Trump as her partner.
In a written statement, the company said it wasn’t buying Ms. McDougal’s story for $150,000, but rather two years’ worth of her fitness columns and magazine covers as well as exclusive life rights to any relationship she has had with a then-married man. “AMI has not paid people to kill damaging stories about Mr. Trump,” the statement said.
McDougal has not, since the August deal, done any fitness columns or magazine covers.
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