HarperCollins UK has formally apologized to Melania Trump after it published "unverified claims" that the first lady was introduced to President Donald Trump by the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
"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 said in a statement Tuesday.
"Copies of the book that include those references are being permanently removed from distribution. HarperCollins UK apologizes to the First Lady," the statement added.
Melania Trump shared the publisher's statement with her nearly 4 million followers on X.
The book, which is an unauthorized biography of Prince Andrew, examines the disgraced royal's connection to Epstein. While Lownie did not allege any wrongdoing by Melania Trump, he did claim that Epstein introduced the couple.
The first lady's representatives have dismissed the claim as "malicious" and "defamatory," telling Mediaite that the "true account" of how the Trumps met "is in her bestselling book 'Melania.'"
According to the book, Melania Knauss met Trump at New York City's Kit Kat Club in 1998 and was not introduced to him by Epstein.
The apology and retraction come as Melania Trump's lawyers have increasingly taken aim at media outlets peddling the false claim that Epstein introduced her to her husband.
In July, The Daily Beast retracted an article based on comments made by Michael Wolff, who repeated the claim of a Trump-Epstein connection. The outlet later apologized.
"The Daily Beast recently published a story headlined 'Melania Trump 'Very Involved' in Epstein Scandal: Author' based on an interview with Michael Wolff. Upon reflection, we have determined that the article did not meet our standards and has therefore been removed from our platforms," The Daily Beast said in a statement last month.
"In response to a letter from the first lady's attorneys, The Daily Beast has also removed a portion of an episode of The Daily Beast Podcast titled 'Trump's Epstein Scandal Can't Stop Won't Stop' referencing the first lady," the statement continued. "The first lady points to her bestselling book 'Melania' as the definitive account of her life story."
"We apologize to the first lady and our readers," the statement added.
Veteran Democrat strategist James Carville also mentioned the claim on his podcast and similarly issued an apology and retraction.
"In last week's podcast episode, we spoke with [journalist] Judd Legum," Carville said. "After the episode, we received a letter from Melania Trump's lawyer."
"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. We took a look at what they complained about, and we took down the video and edited out those comments from the episode."
"I also take back these statements and apologize," said Carville.
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.