Former Playboy model Karen McDougal is alleging an affair more than a decade ago with Donald Trump. Fighting back tears, she says, “I’m really sorry for that. I know it’s a wrong thing to do.” https://t.co/4pCFn3gYhs https://t.co/Lp547aGR9R
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) March 23, 2018
Former Playboy model Karen McDougal sat down with Anderson Cooper on Thursday, detailing her alleged affair with Donald Trump, and relaying a message of apology to his wife, First Lady Melania Trump.
“What can you say except, I’m sorry?” McDougal said. “I’m sorry. I wouldn’t want it done to me.”
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McDougal claims she and Trump had a 10-month affair from 2006-07, when he was the NBC reality star of The Apprentice.
“I can tell you we saw each other a minimum five times a month, up to bigger numbers per month,” McDougal said, who claims Trump tried to pay her off after the first sexual encounter.
“After we had been intimate, he tried to pay me,” McDougal said. “And I actually did not take that.”
“Did he actually try to hand you money?” Cooper asked.
“He did,” she said. “And I said, I just had this look, I just, I don’t even know how to describe the look on my face, it must have been so sad, because I never have been offered money like that number one, and number two, does he think I’m in this for money, and that’s why I’m here tonight?
Or is this a normal thing. I don’t know. But I looked at him and said, that’s not me, I’m not that kind of girl. And he looked at me and said oh, and he said you’re really special. And I said thank you. So I left, and I got into the car…and started crying. I was really sad. It really hurt me, but I went back.”
McDougal said what eventually caused her to break off the relationship was her guilt over Trump being married. She said he even showed her around Trump Tower once and pointed out Melania’s room.
“I was just feeling so guilty,” McDougal said. “It was just digging inside me.”
McDougal filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against American Media Inc., owner of the National Enquirer, for allegedly trying to keep her silent about the affair by paying her $150,000 for the story and never publishing it. She agreed, and in return the company allegedly promised her opportunities as a writer and a model, but she claims the company never came through on those promises.
“AMI lied to me, made empty promises, and repeatedly intimidated and manipulated me. I just want the opportunity to set the record straight and move on with my life, free from this company, its executives, and its lawyers,” McDougal told Cooper.
The White House has denied the alleged affair, and CNN reports that Melania’s spokeswoman did not respond when contacted for a comment.
Photo: CNN.com
