Melania Trump sues Daily Mail over '100% false' claims about her past

Melania Trump is suing The Daily Mail for an article alleging she worked as an escort in the 1990s.

Lawyers for the wife of Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump filed a suit for $150 million damages against the British tabloid in Maryland state court. Trump is also suing a U.S. blogger, Webster Tarpley, from the same state.

"These defendants made several statements about Mrs. Trump that are 100 percent false and tremendously damaging to her personal and professional reputation [and] broadcast their lies to millions of people throughout the U.S. and the world – without any justification," Trump's lawyer Charles Harder said in a statement. "Defendants' actions are so egregious, malicious and harmful to Mrs. Trump that her damages are estimated at $150m."

The Daily Mail and the blogger have since retracted their articles.

"The article... did not intend to state or suggest that these allegations are true, nor did it intend to state or suggest that Mrs. Trump ever worked as an 'escort' or in the 'sex business'," the British newspaper said. "To the contrary, The Daily Mail newspaper article stated that there was no support for the allegations, and it provided adamant denials from Mrs. Trump's spokesperson and from Mr. Zampolli [owner of a modeling agency in New York]."

Tarpley's blog post claimed, among other things, that “it is widely known Melania was not a working model, but rather a high-end escort", according to the lawsuit.

Slovenia-born Melania Trump, 46, moved to the US to work as a model in the 1990s. She married Donald Trump in 2005.