A former Playboy model has said US President Donald Trump brought her to tears when he allegedly offered to pay her for sex in 2006, a year into his marriage to wife Melania.
Karen McDougal claimed to CNN’s Anderson Cooper that after her “intimate” encounter with Trump was over, the billionaire property tycoon offered her cash.
“After we had been intimate, he tried to pay me, and I actually didn’t know how to take that,” she said of their first alleged sexual encounter.
When Cooper asked if Trump tried to hand her money, McDougal said: “He did.”
“I don’t even know how to describe the look on my face. It must have been so sad,” McDougal, 47, added.
The model also claimed Trump compared her to his daughter. She said: “He said I was beautiful like her.”
McDougal has long been rumoured to have a story to tell about Trump. Before the 2016 presidential election, the Wall Street Journal reported that McDougal was paid $150,000 by American Media, Inc., the owner of tabloid magazine National Enquirer.
However, no article featuring McDougal was ever published by the company’s publications, leading to suggestions the payment was a “catch and kill” deal, whereby the rights to a story are purchased but never used.
American Media, Inc.’s chief executive, David Pecker, is known for his support of Trump.
McDougal, who was Playmate of the Year in 1998, is suing the publisher to get out of an agreement which she says forbids her from talking about her 10-month affair with Trump.
But the company denied to CNN that its deal with McDougal silenced her. She “has been free to respond to press inquiries about her relationship with President Trump since 2016,” a spokesperson said.
McDougal told CNN her affair the Trump had taken place in many locations, including at a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, in his private golf club in New Jersey, as well as in Trump Tower. Their first date in June 2006 was in his bungalow rooms at the Beverly Hills hotel.
Last month, the New Yorker magazine published an article which claimed McDougal had written an eight-page article about her alleged encounter with Trump.
McDougal’s alleged encounter with Trump took place about the same time as Trump’s alleged relationship with adult film star Stormy Daniels.
Daniels will appear this weekend on American current affairs programme 60 Minutes.
Three women – Daniels, McDougal, and an Apprentice contestant called Summer Zervos – are all suing the president.
Trump has strongly denied multiple allegations he has been unfaithful.