HarperCollins UK is pulling copies of a book that alleges Epstein introduced Melania and Donald Trump.
HarperCollins UK is pulping copies of a recently published book about Prince Andrew over unsubstantiated rumors that have maddened the Trumps, according to The Hill, Axios, and others. Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York by Andrew Lownie came out in August, and immediately drew a ton of attention for its new revelations about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his alleged pals. One of the unverified claims is that Epstein introduced Melania Trump to Don Trump, which the Trumps deny and have pushed back on very forcefully.
HarperCollins UK bowed to the pressure and issued a statement yesterday apologizing and promising that “copies of the book that include those references are being permanently removed from distribution.”
— HarperCollinsUK (@HarperCollinsUK) October 7, 2025
Melania’s folks claim the real meet-creep, as it were, happened at the Kit Kat Club in 1998 and that Epstein wasn’t the one who made the introduction. This is the story alleged in Melania’s autobiography, another controversial book that got a lot of attention for shipping with “sticky goo all over it.”
The First Lady’s lawyers and handlers have been aggressively trying to quash this rumor—Hunter Biden was threatened with a $1 billion lawsuit if he didn’t apologize for repeating it. It would be nice to see publishers stand up against this intimidation. It’s not like the author of Entitled is some lightweight; Lownie has published long, researched works of history on controversial figures before, including Soviet spy Guy Burgess, the exiled Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and the Mountbattens. And NBC News reported that his book on Prince Andrew is the product of “four years of research and interviews with more than 100 people who haven’t spoken before.”
Maybe someday we’ll find out definitively which story is true, but in the meantime the Trumps are determined to Streisand Effect this rumor by threatening or browbeating Michael Wolff, The Daily Beast, James Carville, Hunter Biden, and now HarperCollins UK.
James Folta
James Folta is a writer and the managing editor of Points in Case. He co-writes the weekly Newsletter of Humorous Writing. More at www.jamesfolta.com or at jfolta[at]lithub[dot]com.
