Ex-Playmate Settles With Tabloid Owner Over Buried Trump Story

(Bloomberg) -- A former Playboy Playmate who claimed she had an affair with Donald Trump more than a decade ago settled a lawsuit against the owner of the National Enquirer, which acquired the rights to her story only to bury it.

Karen McDougal’s ownership of the experience will be restored as part of the agreement with American Media Inc., according to a copy of the settlement Wednesday provided by her lawyer.

“I am pleased to have reached a settlement with AMI on my own terms, which restores to me the rights to my life story and frees me from this contract that I was misled into signing nearly two years ago,” McDougal said in a statement.

McDougal claims she had a 10-month relationship with Trump starting in 2006, when he was already married to his third wife, Melania Trump, who had given birth to their son Barron earlier that year. Trump was the host of NBC reality show “The Apprentice” at the time.

She alleged AMI paid her $150,000 for her story before the 2016 presidential election, intending not to publish it -- what’s known as a “catch and kill” agreement -- because owner David Pecker is a close personal friend of Trump’s.

To contact the reporter on this story: Edvard Pettersson in Los Angeles at epettersson@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Elizabeth Wollman at ewollman@bloomberg.net, Peter Blumberg

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