--- title: National Enquirer Covered Up Story of Donald Trump's Affair description: The National Enquirer bought the rights to a former Playboy model's story about her 2006 affair with Donald Trump and declined to publish it canonical: https://time.com/4559610/donald-trump-national-enquirer-karen-mcdougal/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-05T19:26:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:21.770Z article:section: Politics og:title: The National Enquirer Covered Up Story of Donald Trump's Extramarital Affair: Report og:description: The National Enquirer's company agreed to pay a former model for her story og:url: https://time.com/4559610/donald-trump-national-enquirer-karen-mcdougal/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte5fcbb3ef2b97007/6988ad2abc6cfcc0b63df373/donald-trump-enquirer-affair.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump Holds Pennsylvania Campaign Rally og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The National Enquirer Covered Up Story of Donald Trump's Extramarital Affair: Report twitter:description: The National Enquirer's company agreed to pay a former model for her story twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte5fcbb3ef2b97007/6988ad2abc6cfcc0b63df373/donald-trump-enquirer-affair.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The National Enquirer Covered Up Story of Donald Trump's Extramarital Affair: Report > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Nov 5, 2016 7:26 PM UTC  Donald Trump, 2016 Republican presidential nominee, speaks during a campaign rally in Hershey, Penn. on Nov. 4, 2016. Donald Trump, 2016 Republican presidential nominee, speaks during a campaign rally in Hershey, Penn. on Nov. 4, 2016. Andrew Harrer—Bloomberg/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Nov 5, 2016 7:26 PM UTC The _National Enquirer_ bought the rights to a former Playboy model’s story about her 2006 affair with Donald Trump and then declined to publish it, [according to a Wall Street _Journal_ report](http://www.wsj.com/articles/national-enquirer-shielded-donald-trump-from-playboy-models-affair-allegation-1478309380). American Media Inc., the company that owns the tabloid, agreed to pay $150,000 in August to Karen McDougal, who allegedly had a consensual romantic relationship with Trump in 2006, while he was married to his wife, [Melania](http://time.com/4556902/melania-trump-donald-first-lady-social-media/), the _Journal_ reported, citing interviews with McDougal’s friends, who say she told them about the affair. McDougal didn’t comment for the story. In a statement, the company said it had not bought the rights to a specific story about her affair with Trump, but rather had bought exclusive life rights to stories about any relationship she has had with a then-married man, the _Journal_ reported. The contract barred McDougal from telling the stories elsewhere and also included two years of her fitness columns and magazine covers. “AMI has not paid people to kill damaging stories about Mr. Trump,” the company’s statement said. Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks also denied the affair claim as “totally untrue.” The _Enquirer_, which endorsed Trump and has published [negative stories](http://time.com/4316401/donald-trump-ted-cruz-father-john-f-kennedy/) about his opponents, has not published anything about the affair, nor have any other American Media publications. The report comes after [multiple women have accused Trump](http://time.com/4531872/donald-trump-sexual-assault-accusers-attack/) of inappropriately touching or kissing them in incidents spanning decades. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4559610/donald-trump-national-enquirer-karen-mcdougal/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4559610/donald-trump-national-enquirer-karen-mcdougal/"},"headline":"The National Enquirer Covered Up Story of Donald Trump's Extramarital Affair: Report","datePublished":"2016-11-05T19:26:36.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:21.770Z","description":"The National Enquirer's company agreed to pay a former model for her story","url":"https://time.com/4559610/donald-trump-national-enquirer-karen-mcdougal/","keywords":["Donald Trump","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte5fcbb3ef2b97007/6988ad2abc6cfcc0b63df373/donald-trump-enquirer-affair.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte5fcbb3ef2b97007/6988ad2abc6cfcc0b63df373/donald-trump-enquirer-affair.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump Holds Pennsylvania Campaign Rally","caption":"Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump Holds Pennsylvania Campaign Rally","creditText":"Andrew Harrer—Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4559610/donald-trump-national-enquirer-karen-mcdougal/","name":"The National Enquirer Covered Up Story of Donald Trump's Extramarital Affair: Report"}}]}] ```