Melania's Ex-Aide Resurfaces Interview With Trump's Alleged Mistress Karen McDougal Amid Hush Money Trial
Melania Trump's former aide is bringing attention to an interview given by Donald Trump's alleged ex-mistress as the former president's criminal hush money trial carries on.
On Saturday, Melania's former senior adviser and friend Stephanie Winston Wolkoff shared on X, formerly Twitter, a clip from Playboy model Karen McDougal's 2018 interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper.
In the interview, McDougal opened up about the alleged 10-month affair she had with Trump in 2006 while he was married to Melania. Trump has denied having extramarital sexual encounters with the model.
Cooper brought out a photo showing McDougal posing with Trump, Melania, and his daughter Ivanka Trump at a Playboy Mansion party for "The Apprentice" in 2006.
RELATED : Donald Trump Complains About Being Kept Away From Melania On Her Birthday Amid 'Sex Scandal Trial'
Karen McDougal opened up to Anderson Cooper (2018) about when & where she met Donald Trump, what it was like being his mistress for ten months, how she felt after meeting Melania, and what she thought about meeting all but one of Donald’s children.@AC360
— Stephanie Winston Wolkoff (@SWinstonWolkoff) April 27, 2024
@andersoncooper pic.twitter.com/Mvm1bFntMF
McDougal revealed that it was the first time she had met Melania and admitted she felt "a lot of guilt" for carrying on an alleged sexual relationship with the other woman's husband.
"Honestly, if you can tell, I tried to keep my distance. I tried to go as far away as I could just because I felt guilty," McDougal told Cooper.
Asked if she believed Melania was aware of the alleged affair at the time the photo was taken, the Playboy Playmate responded that she wasn't sure.
However, she claimed to have been told by an unspecified source that Trump and his wife allegedly were heard "arguing" that night possibly because of McDougal.
McDougal emphasized that she could not verify if that account was true.
Later in the interview, McDougal -- who claimed her alleged relationship with Trump began in June 2006, three months before he welcomed son Barron with Melania, and ended in April 2007 -- acknowledged that what she did was "wrong" and tearfully apologized to the former first lady.
"I wouldn't want it done to me, I'm sorry," the model said.
McDougal revealed elsewhere during the sit-down that she had met Trump's four older children.
While she admitted that it felt "strange" to hang out with the son of the man she was allegedly having an affair with, she told Cooper that Eric Trump was "friendly" when she met him during the Trump Vodka release party in 2006.
McDougal also claimed that Trump once said was "beautiful" like his daughter Ivanka.
"He said I was beautiful like her, and 'you're a smart girl,'" McDougal claimed. "There wasn't a lot of comparing, but there was some, yeah. I heard a lot about her."
But McDougal said she didn't find Trump's comments "odd."
"There's been some comments I've heard in the news he's said about her; I think those comments are wrong, but do I think it's strange that a father would love his daughter so much that he brags about her? No, I brag about my dog that much," McDougal told Cooper.
McDougal gave the interview two years after The Wall Street Journal reported that David Pecker's American Media allegedly paid her $150,000 in 2016 for her story about her alleged affair with Trump.
This was one of three hush-money deals that prosecutors in Trump's ongoing trial alleged the ex-president and his allies arranged as part of a scheme to "catch and kill" unflattering stories about him before the 2016 election.
Trump has not been charged over the alleged payment to the Playboy model, according to Reuters.
The GOP 2024 presidential candidate faces 34 counts of falsifying business records related to alleged reimbursements for hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, who alleged that she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006.
Trump has pleaded not guilty in the case and denied Daniels' affair claims.
Former Trump aide Stephanie Grisham told CNN's Erin Burnett Melania was likely unhappy about the new details about her husband's alleged affairs that have surfaced during the trial.
While discussing Pecker's testimony, Grisham -- who previously served as Trump's press secretary and Melania's chief of staff -- said she learned for the first time that Trump allegedly asked about McDougal while he was president.
Grisham said of Melania, "Now, make no mistake, she's not sitting at home, you know, crying over this, but you know, like any...married woman or woman in a relationship, it's not fun to hear these details."
