A recently released biography of Prince Andrew has already undergone edits after a controversial allegation about former President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump triggered legal threats and political fallout.
Andrew Lownie’s new book, Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, was first published on August 14 and sold 60,000 copies before the change. Early editions repeated a claim that disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein was the individual who first introduced Donald Trump to Melania, then his future wife. However, that passage has since been removed from all subsequent print runs, as well as the e-book and audiobook editions.
The publisher HarperCollins UK told The Telegraph that the edits were made following “conversations with the author and publisher.” The spokesman confirmed that while HarperCollins handles the book in the United Kingdom, in the United States the release has been self-published by Lownie.
The disputed claim had already been circulating online before the book’s release. On August 5, Hunter Biden appeared in a YouTube interview with Andrew Callaghan and repeated biographer Michael Wolff’s earlier suggestion that Epstein was responsible for introducing the Trumps. That statement quickly caught attention and legal pressure.
A day later, on August 6, attorney Alejandro Brito, representing Melania Trump, issued a sharply worded demand letter to Biden. In it, Brito insisted that Biden “immediately retract the false, defamatory, disparaging and inflammatory statements made about Mrs. Trump.” The letter further warned that if he did not comply, legal action would follow.
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“Indeed, the video has since been re-published by various media outlets, journalists, and political commentators with millions of social media followers that have disseminated the false and defamatory statements therein to tens of millions of people worldwide,” Brito wrote, laying out the potential harm done to the First Lady’s reputation.
The letter also specified that Melania would pursue damages of up to $1 billion if Biden refused to retract and apologize by the August 7 deadline.
Donald Trump himself later addressed the matter, speaking on Fox News with host Brian Kilmeade on August 12. The former president strongly denied any link between Epstein and his wife’s introduction.
“Jeffrey Epstein had nothing to do with Melania and introducing,” Trump said, clarifying. “It was another person actually… but it wasn’t Jeffrey Epstein.” He further explained that it was his idea for Melania to allow her legal team to respond forcefully: “I told her, ‘Let’s go ahead and do it.’ I let her use my lawyers.”
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Despite the sharp response, Hunter Biden doubled down in an August 14 follow-up appearance with Callaghan, bluntly saying, “F— that. That’s not gonna happen.” Biden continued to cite Michael Wolff as the source for his statements, even though media outlets had already begun pulling similar reporting.
Just weeks earlier, in July, The Daily Beast ran a story quoting Wolff making comparable claims about Melania and Epstein. After being contacted by Melania’s attorneys, the outlet deleted the article in its entirety.
Around the same time, veteran political analyst James Carville also had to backtrack after making similar remarks on his August 7 podcast, later issuing a full apology to the First Lady.
🚨THIS IS GOING TO DRIVE TRUMP NUTS:
Hunter Biden just shredded Trump over Epstein: “The simplest explanation is almost always true. Trump and Epstein were very close. They spent enormous time together – around young women. Epstein introduced Melania.”
Hunter just cooked Trump. pic.twitter.com/8RnDMBstBv
— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) July 22, 2025
The controversy has renewed focus on Donald Trump’s past relationship with Epstein. Trump has publicly acknowledged that he once was friendly with the financier but says they had a falling-out in the mid-2000s, years before Epstein’s arrest and subsequent 2019 suicide.
Earlier this year, flight logs released by Attorney General Pam Bondi showed Trump’s name appeared seven times in Epstein’s travel records. Officials stressed, however, that appearances on the logs do not necessarily imply criminal conduct, and that many passengers took legitimate trips.
Hunter Biden said, “Epstein introduced Melania to Trump. The connections are, like, so wide and deep.”
Melania Trump demanded he retract his statement or face legal consequences.
Hunter Biden said, “F*** that, that’s not going to happen,”
Melania has now hired Miami lawyer…
— Mila Joy (@MilaLovesJoe) August 16, 2025
Meanwhile, any hopes of additional bombshell evidence emerging appear slim. In July, the FBI and Department of Justice released a joint statement declaring their investigation into Epstein “complete.” The memo also confirmed that the long-rumored “client list,” frequently discussed in conspiracy circles, does not exist.
For now, Lownie’s biography of Prince Andrew moves forward without the Epstein-Melania claim. However, the kind of attention and uproar that the event received shows that the Epstein controversy is very much alive and would perhaps not cool down anytime soon.
