Ex Playboy model Karen McDougal shares intimate details about her ten-month affair with Donald Trump

Clad in a dressing robe, and never a lot else, within the suite of a luxurious resort in West Hollywood, it is clear to see how Karen McDougal would possibly appeal to the eye of a wealthy, highly effective, older man. A person like former US president, Donald Trump, as an example.

Karen is an ex-Playboy mannequin who claims she had a ten-month affair with him again in 2006. She’s one in all two ladies – the opposite being Stormy Daniels – who allegedly had a relationship with the married multi-millionaire previous to his profitable 2016 election marketing campaign.

It is these ladies’s allegations that lie on the coronary heart of the Manhattan District Lawyer’s workplace investigation into the now 76-year-old Trump, making him the primary former president in US historical past to face prison expenses – 34 of them, to be exact – all of which he denies.

However whereas Stormy Daniels is the accuser everybody has heard about – a former grownup movie star whose silence was brokered and acquired for $130,000 by Trump’s ‘fixer’, his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, who was jailed for perjury – few have heard of Karen McDougal.

Her story was equally purchased for practically $150,000 and buried, by an American tabloid, a method referred to as a ‘catch and kill’, within the run as much as the election.

However not like Stormy Daniels – who has left her contempt for Trump in little question, describing their alleged sexual encounter as ‘the worst 90-seconds of my life’ – Karen insists, in her unique interview with Each day Mail, that their relationship was actual and loving.

It is actually simple to see how Trump may need fallen for her.

Now aged 52, with cascades of brunette hair and the determine of a lady half her age, she’s additionally sensible and feisty – a ‘bunny’ with a mind – and a pointy wit, too.

I ask how she feels concerning the former president denying that their ten-month affair occurred: Trump has rubbished affairs with each Karen and Stormy Daniels, and claims the prison expenses are a part of a ‘political witch hunt’ to attempt to cease him from operating for workplace once more.

‘His folks have denied it, however he is by no means denied it,’ she corrects me. ‘A reporter requested him: ‘Did you’ve gotten an affair with Karen McDougal?’ and all he stated was: ‘I’ve finished nothing improper.’ He is aware of I am telling the reality.’

She has some extent. For whereas Trump has mocked Stormy Daniels, calling her ‘horse face’ and ‘a complete con job’ and has bad-mouthed E Jean Carroll, the recommendation columnist who was awarded $5million in damages final week after a jury discovered him accountable for sexually abusing and defaming her, as a ‘whack job’, he has by no means stated something derogatory about Karen.

Whereas we’re on the topic, there are just a few different assumptions Karen would really like cleared up about her affiliation with Trump.

Firstly, theirs was not an informal affair; they have been in love, she insists.

‘I used to be in love with him. He was in love with me. I do know that as a result of he instructed me on a regular basis. He’d say ‘You are my child and I like you’. He confirmed me off to his pals.’

And secondly, she insists, she dumped him. ‘I am portrayed because the disgruntled girl, however I’m not that girl. I ended it,’ she says.

She had been pondering of how to get out of the connection, she says: ‘A member of the family got here to city and we went to a bar and I met a beautiful man named Bruce.’

The Bruce she is referring to is the Die-Exhausting actor Bruce Willis with whom she was pictured, hand-in-hand, in Italy on vacation just a few months later in 2007, and whom she dated for six months.

‘I wasn’t dishonest on Trump however Bruce and I have been speaking on the cellphone loads already in order that made it simpler to finish it. Why would I stick with a married man when Bruce was a pleasant man, and single?’ she causes.

Fairly how her life path got here to cross that of the one-time strongest man on the planet seems like an ‘American Dream’ kind story.

One in all 5 youngsters introduced up in a working-class household in Michigan, Karen was educating four-year-olds at a pre-school when, after having her breasts surgically enhanced from 34B to 34D, she entered a swimsuit competitors.

The competitors took her all the way in which to Playboy journal the place she was named a Playmate of the Month for December 1997, Playmate of the Yr in 1998 and in 2001 the journal’s readers voted her runner-up for Playmate of the 90s, behind former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson. (She had her implants eliminated in 2016 over well being considerations.)

In 2006, Trump, who was then the star of the truth TV present, Movie star Apprentice, attended a pool social gathering on the Playboy mansion in Los Angeles, hosted by Hugh Hefner for the present’s contestants.

He’d been married to spouse Melania lower than two years on the time, and she or he’d simply given start to their son Barron.

However, Karen, who was carrying a see-through costume over her swimsuit, says she caught Trump’s eye.

‘He adopted me round like a pet canine, attempting to get my consideration,’ she says. ‘He took to me a lot that the Bunny Mom (the lady charged with taking care of the ladies working as Playboy bunnies) stated: ‘Wow, he actually has a factor for you’.’

‘I used to be saying goodbye and he was standing subsequent to his physique guard Keith Schiller (who later received a high job on the White Home, earlier than being sacked) and he stated, ‘Keith, get her quantity,’.’

‘He known as just a few days later and requested me to have dinner with him on the Beverly Hills Resort,’ she says.

‘I am ashamed about it now as a result of I knew he was married however on the time it was out of sight, out of thoughts. I used to be a unique woman then, having enjoyable and never eager about issues too deeply.’

For the date, she wearing a Roberto Cavalli long-sleeved shirt and denims. Keith was dispatched to choose her up however, to her shock, she was pushed to the again entrance of the well-known resort. For causes which might be apparent to her now, she needed to be stored beneath wraps.

As a substitute of dinner within the restaurant, that they had steak and mashed potatoes delivered by room service within the bungalow the place Trump was staying. ‘We ate at a bit of desk within the kitchen space with the TV on within the background,’ she remembers.

‘After dinner, issues heated up and Trump made his transfer. I used to be interested in him, nevertheless it wasn’t like I used to be seeking to leap into mattress with Donald Trump, on the primary evening particularly,’ she says.

However leap into mattress they did, she says. Afterwards, she was horrified when Trump supplied her cash. ‘I used to be dressed and able to go, and I noticed this stack of money in his hand,’ she remembers.

‘I stated; ‘I am not that type of woman’. He knew he’d made a mistake when he noticed how upset I used to be. He instructed me I used to be actually particular.’

However, she ‘cried all the way in which dwelling’ as Keith drove her again.

‘I did not suppose I might see Trump once more – however we received previous it. I received one other name asking me to dinner and I do not know why, however I stated sure.’

They embarked, she claims, on a consensual affair, assembly 5 or extra instances a month. Their first outing collectively was to an occasion in Lake Tahoe in July 2006, the place Stormy Daniels claims she had intercourse with Trump.

‘I do not know the way he squeezed that in,’ Karen feedback, elevating her completely arched eyebrows. ‘If it occurred, it will need to have been the day earlier than I arrived, or the day after I left, as a result of I believed I used to be with him on a regular basis.’

She accompanied him to Trump golf programs in New Jersey and California and he confirmed her round his three-storey penthouse in Trump Tower in Manhattan.

‘As we handed employees within the constructing, I requested; ‘aren’t you afraid they will say one thing?’ And Trump stated ‘nah, they will not say something’.’

‘It was only a tour – nothing occurred, in there,’ she says. ‘I used to be determined to get out as a result of I used to be in one other girl’s home. I used to be uncomfortable.’

All through their alleged affair, Karen says she made her personal journey preparations. ‘I paid for my flights and accommodations, and he reimbursed me in money,’ she explains. ‘It was so there would not be any paper path, no proof.’

‘I believed I used to be the one girl. He all the time talked about different ladies – do you suppose that woman’s fairly or that woman’s fairly? However I did not suppose to ask if there really have been different ladies – normally it is just one mistress at a time, proper?’ she laughs.

She additionally met – and was photographed with – Trump’s sons Eric and Donald Jnr, and daughter Ivanka, which is when she says the guilt intensified. Motion man Bruce Willis hovering within the background in all probability helped too – and she or he determined to finish issues.

So how did that go down?

‘It occurred over the cellphone,’ she tells me. ‘My mom did not like us being collectively and I used that because the excuse. He stated; ‘What? That outdated hag?’ I used to be indignant. I instructed him that is my mom and do not disrespect her. I identified that he and my mom are the identical age.’ (Karen’s mom, Carol, is six days older than Trump).

‘He wasn’t pleased. He would not like being rejected however he did not attempt to persuade me to return again. The cellphone name ended on dangerous phrases.’

In 2015, nonetheless, she heard that Trump was operating for president. ‘He as soon as stated to me: ‘I might make an important president, would not I?’ And I stated sure however I did not suppose he was taking it severely and neither did I,’ she feedback.

She says she was shocked when her former lover received the Republican nomination. Because the highlight intensified, whispers of their alleged affair started to get out, and Karen says she was approached by American tabloid, the Nationwide Enquirer, owned by the media firm AMI, whose former chief govt was David Pecker, a long-time pal of Trump.

By her lawyer, she agreed a charge of $150,000 in alternate for a deal that she thought can be to write down columns about well being and health for quite a lot of the corporate’s magazines. The story of her alleged affair wouldn’t be revealed.

‘That suited me as a result of I hadn’t actually wished the story to get out. I believed my contract was for work and that it was a win-win state of affairs. I did not know the time period catch-and-kill at that time. I used to be a pawn in that situation due to all of the stuff I wasn’t aware about.’

Karen didn’t know that the journal was stated by prosecutors to be working in live performance with Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen. Prosecutors claimed in a charging doc earlier this month that Trump didn’t need the story about Karen to change into public ‘as a result of he was involved concerning the impact it may have on his candidacy.’

The doc alleges that it was agreed that Trump would reimburse AMI for his or her cost to Karen, however Pecker opted to not search compensation after speaking with an organization lawyer. The US Federal Election Fee dominated in 2021 that AMI’s cost to Karen amounted to an unlawful marketing campaign contribution, and fined its successor firm $187,500.

Trump has denied involvement in funds to both Karen or Stormy Daniels. He is described the prison expenses in opposition to him as a ‘witch hunt’ and ‘political persecution and election interference on the highest stage in historical past’.

His trial is anticipated to happen early subsequent yr. ‘If I used to be subpoenaed as a witness, in fact I might co-operate,’ says Karen.

Karen says she’s been shocked by a few of Trump’s conduct within the final presidential marketing campaign. ‘I used to be horrified when he made enjoyable of that disabled journalist,’ she says, referring to Serge Kovaleski who has arthrogryposis, a congenital situation affecting the joints.

She was ‘disgusted’ by the Entry Hollywood ‘seize them by the p***y’ tape.

However, she voted for Trump within the 2016 election, as a result of she’s a life-long Republican.

‘He will be crass and vulgar however when he has his variety moments, it is pretty to see as a result of it reveals there’s nonetheless a human in there. He must have extra compassion for folks on the whole – much more,’ she admonishes.

As for E. Jean Carroll, she says she has nothing however admiration for her: ‘I am glad she had her day in courtroom and that she stood up for herself. I am glad she received justice.’

McDougal swerves once I ask if she is going to vote for Trump if he wins the subsequent Republican nomination. Her reply is just not precisely a ringing vote of confidence within the former US president. ‘I am hoping De Santis will get in. I might be keen to work for his marketing campaign,’ she says, referring to the favored, and youthful, politician Ron De Santis, present governor of Florida, who is anticipated to declare subsequent week that he’ll run for the highest job.

It has been 17 years since Karen and Trump met at that Playboy pool social gathering, and it appears unlucky that she has by no means been in a position to escape the implications. ‘Completely. It has modified my life,’ Karen agrees. ‘The dangerous half is that I’ve misplaced work, misplaced pals and my identify has been smeared as an extortionist and a gold-digger. I’m neither of these issues.

‘The nice half is that I am stronger. I’ve grown from this. I am a unique girl.’

Earlier than leaving, I ask Karen what she’d do if she met Trump on the road. She smiles earlier than replying: ‘I might say whats up – and preserve strolling.’