21 August 2025 , 16:00
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The author of a book about British Prince Andrew and publisher HarperCollins UK cut passages about Melania Trump and Jeffrey Epstein from a biography amid legal threats against Joe Biden’s son, Hunter.
According to People, on August 5 Hunter Biden gave a three-hour interview in which he repeated biographer Michael Wolff’s claim that it was financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein who introduced Donald Trump to Melania.
The book by British writer Andrew Lownie, Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, contained the same claim.
However, under threat of a $1 billion defamation lawsuit from Melania Trump’s lawyers, that section was removed from new editions of the book.
A representative of HarperCollins UK told The Telegraph that after discussions with the publisher and the author, the passages about Trump’s introduction to Melania were taken out. The book was released not only in the UK but also in the US.
On August 12 in an interview with Fox News, President Trump said that he and his wife were introduced by another person, adding that he supported Melania’s decision to threaten Biden with a lawsuit.
“I allowed her to use my lawyers. Jeffrey Epstein had nothing to do with Melania or her introduction. In fact, it was another person… but it was not Jeffrey Epstein,” Trump said.
Jeffrey Epstein was an American financier and millionaire who became the central figure in one of the most notorious sex scandals in U.S. history.
He was accused of organizing the sexual exploitation of underage girls. According to investigators, beginning in the 1990s, he created a network for recruiting and exploiting dozens, possibly hundreds, of minors. In 2008, he struck a plea deal with Florida prosecutors (the so-called plea agreement) and served only 13 months in jail with work release privileges.
In July 2019, Epstein was arrested again on charges of trafficking minors for sexual exploitation. On August 10, 2019, he was found dead in his cell at a New York detention facility.
Right-wing circles in the U.S. have for years demanded more information about Epstein’s death. During the 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump promised to release all the details of the case. However, instead, FBI Director Kash Patel — appointed by Trump in 2025 — stated in May that all evidence pointed to Epstein having died by suicide.
Donald Trump, like Prince Andrew, had been friends with Epstein. The president claimed that he and the financier fell out in the early 2000s after Epstein lured away staff who had been working at Trump’s golf club spa in Florida.
Technology & Business Editor