Karen
McDougal
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Undated:
Karen McDougal (born
March 23, 1971) is an American model and actress. She is known for her
appearances in
Playboy
magazine as
Playmate of the Month for December 1997[1]
and
Playmate of the Year of 1998.[3]
In 2001, the readers of Playboy voted McDougal the
runner-up
of "The sexiest Playmate of the 1990s".[4]
McDougal taught
pre-kindergarten before winning a
swimwear competition that launched her career as a
glamour,
promotional, and
swimsuit
model. Since her appearances in Playboy, she has extended her career into
a wide variety of appearances in mainstream media, including other magazine
modeling, television commercials, and minor acting, with mixed success. She has
been a successful
fitness model, with multiple magazine appearances including being the first
woman to appear on the cover of
Men's Fitness magazine. She starred in
The Arena, a
direct-to-video film, and inspired the creation of a
fantasy art
statuette and a
doll.
McDougal is a fitness enthusiast, having since childhood engaged in ballet study
and high school sports. She is an avid
motorcycle
and car collector. Since her Playmate days, she has maintained a largely private
social life. The revelation of an alleged affair with
Donald
Trump from 2006–07 and its subsequent alleged coverup have put her into
national headlines before and after the
2016 United States presidential election.
In November 2016,
The Wall Street Journal reported that McDougal had told her friend that
she had an affair with a married
Donald
Trump from 2006 to 2007, with various sources quoting that it had lasted
from ten months to a year. It also reported that
American Media, Inc. (AMI), the owner of the
National Enquirer, had paid McDougal $150,000 for exclusive rights to
her story, but never published it. AMI stated to The Wall Street Journal
that it had paid the amount to McDougal not "to
kill damaging stories about" Trump, but for "exclusive life rights to any
relationship she has had with a then-married man" and "two years’ worth of her
fitness columns and magazine covers".[46][47]
On June 20, 2016,
Dylan
Howard interviewed McDougal for several hours at the offices of her lawyer,
Keith M. Davidson.[48]
McDougal later met with investigative reporters from
ABC News,
which prompted American Media to offer to buy the rights to McDougal's story for
$150,000 in August 5, 2016.[48]
The Wall Street Journal published the story four days before the 2016 United
States presidential election, in which Trump was the
Republican nominee. Trump was endorsed by the National Enquirer, and
was friends with AMI CEO/Chairman
David
Pecker.
Hope Hicks,
speaking for
the Trump campaign, denied the existence of an affair between Trump and
McDougal, saying that the notion was "totally untrue."[49][50]
In February 2018, with Trump already elected as President,
The New Yorker's
Ronan
Farrow wrote about the affair and AMI's purchase of the story, largely
corroborating the 2016 Wall Street Journal report, except that the affair
had gone on for nine months. The story was based on McDougal's handwritten
memoirs of the affair, which McDougal's friend passed to Farrow. McDougal
confirmed to Farrow that she had written the memoirs. Farrow quotes the memoirs
as stating that McDougal first met Trump in June 2006 at a party hosted by Hugh
Hefner at the Playboy Mansion. Trump kept in contact with McDougal, and they had
sex on the first date. During the affair, she met members of his family and he
promised to buy her an apartment in New York. To avoid "paper trails", Trump had
McDougal pay for flight and hotel expenses when she flew to meet him, then he
reimbursed her. McDougal ended the affair in April 2007 due to guilt and being
offended by some of Trump's comments.[45][51][52]
McDougal declined to discuss details of the alleged affair due to her agreement
with AMI, but she told Farrow that she regretted signing that agreement, saying,
"It took my rights away... I don't know what I'm allowed to talk about. I'm
afraid to even mention his name." Farrow also wrote that AMI CEO/Chairman David
Pecker has a "favorite tactic" of buying "a story in order to bury it". AMI said
it did not publish McDougal's story as it was not credible, and a spokesperson
for the White House denied the affair.[45]
On March 22, 2018, McDougal was interviewed by
Anderson Cooper on
AC360 in which she detailed her alleged affair with Trump.[53][54]
In the interview McDougal said that Trump tried to give her money after they
first had sex. She also stated that their relationship lasted ten months and
that she visited Trump "many dozens of times".[55][56]
In March 2018, McDougal filed a lawsuit against American Media, Inc. in
Los Angeles Superior Court, aiming to invalidate the
non-disclosure agreement.[57][58]
On April 19, 2018, American Media, Inc. settled with McDougal; the settlement
allows her to speak about the alleged affair.[59]
In July 2018,
The New York Times reported that two months before the 2016 presidential
election, Trump's personal lawyer,
Michael Cohen, had secretly recorded a conversation between him and Trump
regarding paying McDougal. Another personal lawyer to Trump,
Rudy
Giuliani, said that Trump did not know of the recording, and gave two
versions of the topic of conversation, saying firstly that the discussion was
planning to pay McDougal directly, and secondly that it was about planning to
pay
American Media Inc. (AMI) for the rights to McDougal's story. This appeared
to contradict a previous claim by Trump's campaign spokeswoman
Hope Hicks
days before the election when she responded to the report by The Wall Street
Journal about AMI's payment to McDougal that "we have no knowledge of any of
this."[60]
On July 25, Cohen's attorney
Lanny
Davis released the actual recording to CNN, which played it on the air. On
it, Trump and Cohen can be heard discussing how to make a payment for "all of
that info regarding our friend David," interpreted as meaning AMI CEO/Chairman
David Pecker. Trump is also heard asking if "one-fifty" needed to be paid, to
which Cohen answered in the affirmative. McDougal was reportedly paid $150,000
by AMI.[61][62]
Davis stated that Cohen "achieved independence" on July 2, 2018 and was ready to
admit the truth at this point.[63][64]
In August 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to breaking campaign finance laws,
admitting paying
hush money
of $130,000 and $150,000 "at the direction of a candidate for federal office",
to two women who alleged affairs with that candidate, "with the purpose of
influencing the election". The figures match sums of payments made to adult film
actress
Stormy Daniels and McDougal. Daniels has also alleged a 2006 affair with
Trump.[65][66]
Trump responded to Cohen's claims by saying he only knew about the payments
"later on", and that he paid back Cohen personally, not out of campaign funds.[67]
David Pecker (AMI CEO/Chairman and friend of Trump),
Dylan
Howard (AMI chief content officer) and
Allen Weisselberg (chief
financial officer of
The Trump Organization) were reportedly granted
witness immunity in exchange for their testimony regarding the illegal
payments.[68][69]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_McDougal
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