Former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal’s Affair With Donald Trump Swept Under The Rug

Former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal has since admitted that she had an affair with Donald Trump while he was married to Melania. Reports surfaced that a U.S. tabloid allegedly paid $150,000 to the model for exclusive rights to her story about having the affair with Trump, but it was never published.

Karen McDougal, Playboy’s 1998 Playmate of the Year, claims that she had an affair with Trump back in 2006 while he was married to his current wife, Melania, according to the Telegraph. The claim has been since denied by Trump, along with his spokesperson, who says that it’s “totally untrue.”

However, the Wall Street Journal claims that American Media Inc., the company that owns the National Enquirer, agreed to pay McDougal for the story, but it never made its way into the magazine. The company paid McDougal for two years’ worth of fitness columns and magazine columns as well as “exclusive rights to any relationship she has had with a then married man.”

The National Enquirer has been open about its public endorsement for Trump’s presidential bid. In addition, the Republican candidate is friends with David Pecker, the chairman of American Media. Pecker told the Wall Street Journal that his friendship with Trump is not a secret from the world and that he respects and admires the aspiring politician. He insists that the National Enquirer is not one-sided when it comes to the presidential candidates. His friendship with Trump did not stop him from running a story in the National Enquirer about Trump’s affair with Marla Maples when he was married to his first wife.

“That it itself speaks volumes about our commitment to investigative report,” her added.

The company’s statement also stated that American Media Inc. “has no paid people to kill damaging stories about Mr. Trump.” But, the National Enquirer has yet to run the story about the alleged “consensual romantic relationship” that McDougal established with Trump. The newspaper reportedly agreed to run her story, which they discussed back in August.

This story comes after the Washington Post published a videotape of Trump in which he spoke about groping women with former Access Hollywood host Billy Bush. Several women have publicly come forward to claim that he made unwanted sexual advances without their consent. Trump has since denied the allegations and apologized for the tape, which he described as “locker room banter.”

McDougal, who continued modeling after appearing in Playboy, allegedly told several of her friends that she had a 10-month affair with Trump, which began in 2006 and lasted into 2007, according to people close to her. An anonymous friend told the Wall Street Journal that McDougal’s affair with Trump actually lasted a year.

Back in July, McDougal was in talks with producers of ABC News to tell her story on television, but she agreed to run a story through AMI, a decision guided by her lawyer Keith Davidson, according to unidentified sources familiar with the situation. An ABC spokesperson declined to comment to the Wall Street Journal to comment on McDougal’s situation.

It looks like McDougal’s story will never make it to print since it’s known that AMI is on Trump’s side during this election. After McDougal became Playboy’s Playmate of the Year in 1998, she went on to become a fitness model and was the first woman to appear on Men’s Fitness magazine, according to Hollywood Life. McDougal previously taught pre-kindergarten children before she won a swimming competition that launched her modeling career. Since her Playboy Playmate days, she has gone back to living a private life, despite this latest scandal involving her and Trump. McDougal has not responded to the media for comment on this developing story.

[Featured Image by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Playboy]