A former Playboy model has opened up about her alleged affair with Donald Trump after she claims a gossip magazine that bought her story tried to kill it.
Karen McDougal says she met the future president at a Playboy Mansion party in 2006, shortly after his wife Melania had given birth to their son Barron.
The former Playmate of the Year said that Trump ‘immediately took a liking to me, kept talking to me – telling me how beautiful I was, etc. It was so obvious that a Playmate Promotions exec said, ‘Wow, he was all over you – I think you could be his next wife.”
Karen McDougal (pictured with Donald Trump) says she met the future president at a Playboy Mansion party in 2006, shortly after his wife Melania had given birth to their son Barron
In handwritten notes, obtained by the New Yorker, she described how they began a nine-month affair and that she would often visit him at the famous Beverly Hills Hotel, where he would always ordered steak and mashed potatoes.
The former model, who has recently found god, says the first time they had sex she was shocked that the then-reality TV star had attempted to offer her cash.
‘We talked for a couple hours – then, it was ‘ON’! We got naked + had sex,’ she wrote.
‘I looked at him (+ felt sad) + said, ‘No thanks – I’m not ‘that girl.’ I slept w/you because I like you – NOT for money’ – He told me ‘you are special.”
Playboy model Karen McDougal (pictured) claimed she had a consensual relationship with Donald Trump over several months beginning in 2006, sources told the Wall Street Journal
McDougal (second from left) with Hugh Hefner, fellow bunnies Christine Santiago and Julie Cialini, and George Maloof (top right)
Trump, who had been married to model Melania for around two years in 2006, would also fly her around the country to various events where he was attending, McDougal claims.
One such event was the Lake Tahoe golf tournament – the same place where Trump allegedly began an affair with pornstar Stormy Daniels that same year.
McDougal, the 1998 Playmate of the Year and runner up Playmate of the 90s, said she sold her story to the National Enquirer’s publishing company.
But the National Enquirer didn’t publish anything about McDougal’s allegations, despite paying $150,000 for the information, according to people familiar with the matter and documents reviewed by the Wall Street Journal.
McDougal and American Media Inc., which owns the National Enquirer, agreed to the transaction in early August, the Wall Street Journal reported.
American Media Inc. said in a statement the $150,000 was payment for exclusive life rights to any story related to a relationship McDougal may have had with a married man – and for fitness columns written by her.
The National Enquirer’s publishing company paid McDougal $150,000 for her story about having an affair with Trump (left) while he was married to his wife Melania (right) – but never ran it, sources told the Wall Street Journal.
The contract, according to the Wall Street Journal, kept McDougal from disclosing her story on other outlets and established damages of at least $150,000 if she shared her account elsewhere.
But American Media Inc. didn’t plan on publishing the story, even though McDougal expected it to run, people familiar with the situation told the Wall Street Journal.
‘AMI has not paid people to kill damaging stories about Mr Trump,’ the company said in the statement.
The National Enquirer has supported Trump throughout the presidential campaign.
American Media Inc CEO David Pecker told the Wall Street Journal in a statement it was known that he and Trump are friends.
But he used the National Enquirer’s coverage of Trump’s affair with Marla Maples when he was married to his first wife Ivana was a proof of the publication’s independence.
McDougal told several friends that she had a relationship with Trump lasting about 10 months, people familiar with her account said.
Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks said the campaign had no knowledge of a possible agreement with McDougal and called the allegation of an affair between Trump and McDougal ‘totally untrue’.