HarperCollins UK has formally retracted and apologized for publishing a claim that disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein introduced Melania Trump to her husband, US President Donald Trump. The publishing giant announced on October 8 that it had recalled copies of an unauthorized biography of Prince Andrew which repeated the unverified allegation-one that Melania Trump’s legal team described as “malicious and defamatory.”

The decision marks yet another episode in the ongoing controversy linking Epstein’s extensive network of wealthy and powerful acquaintances to public figures who have since distanced themselves from him. Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges, remains a subject of both fascination and suspicion due to his high-profile social connections.

The book in question, Prince Andrew: Power, Privilege, and the Palace, written by historian Andrew Lowine and published in mid-August, explored the Duke of York’s long and troubled association with Epstein. Within that context, Lowine repeated an unverified claim-originally circulated years earlier in online speculation-that Epstein had introduced Melania Knauss, then a Slovenian model, to Donald Trump at a social event in New York City during the late 1990s.

However, no credible evidence has ever supported that version of events. According to Melania Trump’s own account in her memoir and multiple verified interviews, she met Donald Trump at a Fashion Week party in 1998 through a mutual acquaintance, Italian businessman Paolo Zampolli.

In its statement,........

© Blitz