Daily Mail pays Melania damages over escort claim

Britain's Daily Mail newspaper yesterday apologised to US First Lady Melania Trump and agreed to pay her damages over an article that included allegations that she worked as an escort in the 1990s.

"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," Catrin Evans, the lawyer for Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail and MailOnline, told the High Court in London.

Although the total amount of damages was not disclosed, the Press Association news agency said it was believed to be under $3 million (2.8 million euros).

John Kelly, Melania Trump's lawyer, said the article in the Daily Mail -- Britain's second biggest-selling newspaper -- in print and online in August last year "included false and defamatory claims".

The allegations "questioned the nature of her work as a professional model, and republished allegations that she provided services beyond simply modelling," Kelly said.

The article stated that there was no support for the allegations and provided denials from her spokesperson and from Paolo Zampolli, who ran the modelling agency where she worked.

But the allegations "strike at the heart of the claimant's personal integrity and dignity," Kelly added.

Trump's lawyers launched a lawsuit against the Daily Mail in September in New York, asking for $150 million in damages.