Summary: Melania Trump has filed a $150 million defamation lawsuit against The Daily Mail for suggesting she had been a sex worker.
Don’t suggest Melania Trump is an escort or you’ll get sued. That’s one lesson The Daily Mail is learning, and it could be a costly one.
Melania is the third wife of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, and she is a former model from Slovenia. On August 19, The Daily Mail published a profile of her journey to the United States, and it was less than favorable. The article titled “Naked photoshoots, and troubling questions about visas that won’t go away: The VERY racy past of Donald Trump’s Slovenian wife” suggested that she had been a prostitute, which attracted her a rich husband.
The article stated that in the 1990s Melania posed for sexy, lesbian-themed naked pictures and the timing suspiciously coincided with her travels to the United States. She worked for an American modeling agency, which the article said had ties to an escort agency for wealthy men. It added, “It is no coincidence she got a rich husband.”
Melania called the article “false,” and she filed a $150 million defamation lawsuit on Thursday against The Daily Mail and the website’s parent company. A blogger who wrote a similar story was also named as a defendant in the suit, The Hollywood Reporter wrote.
Melania is being represented by powerhouse attorney Charles Harder, who recently destroyed gossip website Gawker by representing Hulk Hogan in his case against the site.
Gawker had published a sex tape of Hulk Hogan, real name Terry Bollea, having consensual sex with his friend’s wife. Harder had argued Gawker had violated Bollea’s privacy, and a jury awarded Bollea $140 million in damages, which caused the website to file for bankruptcy and eventually shut down.
In Melania’s lawsuit filed, it stated that she did “legitimate modeling work for legitimate business entities and did not work for any ‘gentleman’s club’ or ‘escort’ agencies. Plaintiff was not a sex worker, escort or prostitute in any way, shape or form, nor did she ever have a composite or presentation card for the sex business.”
The lawsuit added that Melania did not move to the United States until 1996 and therefore could not have participated in the racy photo shoot described in the article.
Melania is suing for defamation and tortious interference. She said that the allegations had negatively affected her licensing and endorsement deals.
On Thursday, The Daily Mail issued a retraction, and the blogger has already removed his post and apologized.
Do you think The Daily Mail will suffer Gawker’s fate? Let us know in the comments below.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Photo courtesy of The Hill