Passages from a new book about Prince Andrew have been cut after First Lady Melania Trump threatened to sue Hunter Biden over claims linking her to Jeffrey Epstein.
Andrew Lownie’s book, Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, was released on August 14.
The first 60,000 copies contained a passage suggesting that Epstein introduced Melania to U.S. President Donald Trump, her now-husband.
Highlights
- A new Prince Andrew book initially claimed Jeffrey Epstein introduced Melania Trump to Donald Trump, but those passages were later removed.
- Melania Trump threatened to sue Hunter Biden for $1 billion over false claims linking her to Jeffrey Epstein.
- HarperCollins UK confirmed the Epstein passages were removed from future editions after legal threats.
Passages from a new book linking Melania Trump to Jeffrey Epstein have been cut
Image credits: Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images
Biden made the same claim earlier this month in a YouTube interview on Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan, citing Trump biographer Michael Wolff.
Melania has strongly denied the allegation. Through her lawyer, Alejandro Brito, she demanded that Biden “immediately retract the false, defamatory, disparaging and inflammatory statements.”
She warned that if he refused, she would file a $1 billion lawsuit against him for defamation.
Trump backed his wife’s response, saying he encouraged her to move forward with legal action.
“I told her, ‘Let’s go ahead and do it,’” Trump said. “I let her use my lawyers.”
“Jeffrey Epstein had nothing to do with Melania and introducing. It was another person actually… but it wasn’t Jeffrey Epstein,” Trump continued.
Following the legal threat, HarperCollins UK confirmed that the passages in Lownie’s book repeating those claims were removed.
Image credits: Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan
A spokesperson said the decision was made in consultation with the author.
While the first printed editions still contain the claim, future copies, e-books, and audiobooks will not.
The book is published by Harper Collins in the UK, but is self-published in the U.S.
This is not the first time the allegation has surfaced. Wolff made a similar statement in July in a story with The Daily Beast.
The article titled, “Melania Trump ‘very involved’ in Epstein Scandal: Author”, claimed that Melania was introduced to Trump via a modeling agent connected to Epstein.
Melania also threatened Hunter Biden with a $1 billion defamation lawsuit
Image credits: Davidoff Studios/Getty Images
The outlet has since deleted the story after Melania’s legal team threatened legal action over the headline and framing of the article.
Political analyst James Carville also issued an apology to Melania after he made similar claims on his August 7 podcast and was contacted by the First Lady’s legal team.
“First Lady Melania Trump’s attorneys are actively ensuring immediate retractions and apologies by those who spread malicious, defamatory falsehoods,” a spokesperson for Melania previously told The Independent. “The true account of how the First Lady met President Trump is in her best-selling book, Melania.”
In a June article, The Daily Beast spoke to Wolff, who discussed 2017 interviews he had conducted with Epstein.
In one of those interviews, the sex offender claimed that Trump first slept with Melania aboard the ‘Lolita Express’, the convicted pedophile’s private jet.
Image credits: The White House
The Trump administration is facing increased pressure from MAGA supporters and critics to release files related to Epstein.
Trump has been publicly linked with Epstein, with the duo being close friends before their fallout in the mid-2000s.
In early July, the FBI and Department of Justice released a joint memo saying that Epstein died by suicide and that his long-rumored client list does not exist.
During Trump’s 2024 campaign, he had promised to release the Epstein files and Attorney General Pam Bondi previously said the client list was “sitting on my desk right now to review.”