affair

The National Enquirer’s parent company paid a Manhattan doorman $30,000 for a story it never published alleging that Donald Trump secretly fathered a child, according to news reports.

Former doorman Dino Sajudin told the story to the National Enquirer in late 2015, when Trump was the top contender for the Republican presidential nomination, the Associated Press and the New Yorker reported early Thursday.

Sajudin, who worked at Trump World Tower near the United Nations headquarters, told the National Enquirer that he’d heard from co-workers that Trump had “knocked up” one of his employees, who gave birth to a girl, according to documents posted on the website of Radar Online, a sister publication of the National Enquirer.

The supermarket tabloid requested a polygraph exam, and the examiner concluded that Sajudin was telling the truth about hearing the story, the documents say.

Four unnamed National Enquirer employees told AP that top editors, despite the polygraph results, ordered them to stop reporting the story.

Sajudin signed a contract with the tabloid’s parent company, American Media Inc., led by President Trump’s close friend David Pecker. Sajudin, who received the $30,000 in return for giving American Media exclusive rights to the story, agreed to pay a $1-million penalty if he failed to keep quiet, according to the AP and the New Yorker.

“I can confirm that while working at Trump World Tower, I was instructed not to criticize President Trump’s former housekeeper due to a prior relationship she had with President Trump which produced a child,” Sajudin told CNN on Thursday.

It is the second known case of American Media spending money in a way that protected Trump from a potentially harmful story during the 2016 presidential race — a practice known in the tabloid gossip world as “catch and kill.”

Days after Trump won his party’s presidential nomination, American Media paid former Playboy model Karen McDougal $150,000 for exclusive rights to her story of a nine-month affair with Trump, but never published it.

McDougal is suing to void the deal, alleging that her attorney was secretly colluding with Trump lawyer Michael Cohen.

Trump lawyer Michael Cohen is prized for his loyalty — and willingness to attack the president’s rivals »

The FBI raided Cohen’s office, home and hotel room this week under search warrants reportedly seeking records on McDougal’s nondisclosure deal with American Media.

The search warrant also reportedly sought records on a separate confidentiality agreement that Cohen reached in October 2016 with porn star Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. He set up a shell company that paid Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about Trump’s alleged 2006 sexual encounter with her.

It’s unclear what crimes federal authorities suspect were committed. But McDougal’s lawsuit charges that American Media’s $150,000 payment to her was an illegal secret donation that federal election law required the Trump campaign to publicly disclose.

Common Cause, a nonpartisan ethics group, has filed complaints with the Justice Department and Federal Election Commission alleging that the payments to McDougal and Daniels were illegal campaign contributions.

On Thursday, Common Cause submitted new complaints alleging the payment to Sajudin, too, was an unlawful attempt to influence the 2016 election by protecting Trump’s candidacy from bad publicity.

“Secret payments to hide affairs may have been commonplace in the president’s previous life as a tabloid figure, but when he became a candidate for the presidency, any new payments to safeguard his candidacy became violations of federal law,” said Paul S. Ryan, the vice president for policy and litigation at Common Cause.

Cohen acknowledged that he discussed Sajudin’s story with the National Enquirer when it was reporting on the allegations, but denied knowing in advance that the tabloid paid the former doorman $30,000, the AP reported.

Neither the AP nor the New Yorker named the woman who was alleged to have had Trump’s child about 30 years ago.

The documents posted by Radar Online indicate that the National Enquirer found in late 2015 that the woman was then living in Queens, and her daughter in Northern California.

Radar Online reported that despite the polygraph results, National Enquirer editors concluded after four weeks of investigating, that Sajudin’s story was false.

“When we realized we would be unable to publish, and other media outlets approached the source about his tale, we released Sajudin from the exclusivity clause that had accompanied his $30,000 payment, freeing him to tell his story to whomever he wanted,” Dylan Howard, the chief content officer at American Media, told Radar Online.

American Media, or AMI, led by longtime Trump friend Pecker, released a statement denying that Cohen or Trump had anything to do with its decision “not to pursue a story about a ‘love child’ that it determined was not credible.”

“The suggestion that David Pecker has ever used company funds to ‘shut down’ this or any investigation is not true,” the statement said. “In addition, AMI and Mr. Pecker emphatically deny any suggestion that there might have been be any ‘partnership’ created which might influence any business ties in regard to AMI. These claims are reckless, unsubstantiated, and false.”

The statement also quoted Howard defending the decision to not publish a story.

“Paying for information has long been a practice of The National Enquirer and to suggest that it has only paid for, and not run, stories about any particular person is absurd,” he said.

The former National Enquirer employees told the AP that the tabloid failed to pursue its standard reporting practices for proving paternity, such as exhaustive stakeouts.

In 2007, when the National Enquirer disclosed that Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards had fathered a child with a mistress, it did so in part by rummaging through a dumpster for material to use in a DNA test. Months later, Edwards admitted the story was true.

Edwards, a former U.S. senator from North Carolina, was tried on federal charges of using campaign money to hide the pregnant mistress from voters during the campaign. The case ended in an acquittal on one charge and a mistrial on five others.

michael.finnegan@latimes.com

Twitter: @finneganLAT

UPDATES:

6 p.m.: This article was updated with a statement from American Media Inc.

1:30 p.m.: This article was updated with Sajudin’s statement to CNN and background on John Edwards.

12:20 p.m.: This article was updated with new Common Cause complaint.

This article was originally published at 10:55 a.m.

Coronation Street fans are convinced an affair and a baby twist is on the way for Kit Green and Bethany Platt after Kit was dumped by his partner Sarah Platt on the ITV soap

Fans of Coronation Street think the signs are all there that Bethany Platt and Kit Green will have an affair.

Not only that but a baby twist could also be on the way. After Lucy Fallon, who plays Bethany, told the Mirror earlier this year about a plot on the way that fans would hate, viewers now think they’ve worked it out.

Recent scenes saw Bethany’s mother Sarah Platt dump her partner Kit, after her arrest. She’s currently in prison over Theo Silverton’s murder, and Kit wants to help get her out.

His hatred of Gary Windass, who helped Sarah initially cover up the crime, has led to him looking for evidence to implicate him. On Wednesday we saw Bethany roped in to Kit’s plans, with her also wanting to get her mum out of prison.

With Kit and Bethany teaming up and actress Lucy’s hints about what’s ahead, some fans can’t shake the feeling that an affair is on the way. They have wondered if Kit and Bethany will grow closer and end up sleeping together.

Some fans even wondered if it will lead to a baby twist for Bethany. Taking to social media one fan guessed: “Seeing as Bethany has a big storyline coming up, will it be having an affair with Kit after they bond taking care of Harry?”

Another fan posted: “If Sarah gets out, perhaps both Sarah and Bethany pregnant by Kit.” A third fan added: “Is the Bethany/Kit affair a FOR SURE thing or just a rumour?”

A fourth theory commented: “I also think maybe Kit and Bethany will work to get Sarah out of prison and maybe end up sleeping together.” A further post read: “Oh the tension between Kit & Bethany?! I am SORRY it is happening!”

One fan said: “I wouldn’t be surprised if something happens between Bethany and Kit.” As a fan then questioned if “another affair” was being planned, a viewer replied: “I thought to myself exactly this yesterday.”

It comes after what Lucy told the Mirror about the future for Bethany, in April. She said: “She does [have a big storyline coming up]. I can’t tell you what it is, but it’s not going to be great. I don’t think people are going to be happy about it.

“This one is low-key her fault. Everyone is going to be like, ‘She is a d**k.’ Which is fine.” But Lucy isn’t bothered about taking on controversial storylines on one condition. Lucy says as long as the plot “is good” she’s happy to get her teeth stuck into it.

Coronation Street airs weeknights at 8:30pm on ITV1 and ITV X. * Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .

An aide involved in an affair with Gavin Newsom more than 20 years ago, when he was mayor of San Francisco, detailed their relationship and her journey to sobriety in an essay published by Vanity Fair on Tuesday.

Although Ruby Rippey, 54, has spoken previously about her relationship with the now-governor, her first-person essay offers the most intimate description yet of the affair. It comes at a time when Newsom is wrapping up his final year as California governor and considering a presidential run in 2028.

Rippey, who had worked as Newsom’s appointments secretary, was married to Alex Tourk, the then-mayor’s close friend, campaign manager and prior deputy chief of staff, when the affair became public in 2007. Tourk resigned after Rippey told him that she had been sleeping with their boss, she writes.

At the time, Newsom was newly divorced from Kimberly Guilfoyle and he apologized in front of a gaggle of reporters who packed his office for a news conference, admitting “everything you’ve heard and read is true.” Later, he said he was seeking treatment for alcohol abuse.

In the essay, Rippey details that the affair with Newsom happened when she was a new mother and when her drinking, which had been a problem before the relationship, spiraled out of control.

Rippey writes that their relationship began in July 2005 after a wedding at a Napa Valley estate and spanned months, with intermittent sexual encounters until she entered rehab in May 2006.

They met at his penthouse in San Francisco’s Russian Hill neighborhood, at a private back room in a bar in North Beach and at the W Hotel in Los Angeles, she writes.

“We meet and we drink. There is sex, but it isn’t the point. The point is proximity — to power, to being chosen, to feeling newly visible — no longer muted by pregnancy, by new motherhood, by the strain of white-knuckling long stretches of sobriety,” she writes. “It isn’t love. It isn’t romance. It’s intoxication.”

Izzy Gardon, a spokesperson for the governor’s office, said on Tuesday that Newsom acknowledged his role and publicly apologized for the affair nearly two decades ago.

“In the time since, he met his wife, started a family and has focused on serving Californians. He addressed this chapter of his life, including in his memoir, and out of respect for everyone involved, does not have anything further to add,” Gardon said.

The affair occurred while Gavin Newsom was mayor of San Francisco.

(San Francisco Chronicle / Hearst Newspapers)

Newsom faced renewed criticism for the affair during the 2018 governor’s race amid a larger reckoning over sexual misconduct in politics, corporate America and Hollywood. But Rippey has said she doesn’t see herself as a victim of a powerful man.

“Yes, I was a subordinate, but I was also a free-thinking, 33-yr old adult married woman & mother. (I also happened to have an unfortunate inclination towards drinking-to-excess & self-destruction.),” she wrote on Facebook at the time.

She still doesn’t place blame on the governor for what happened, but noted in her essay that in the post-#MeToo era she came to realize that her then-boss had a responsibility to “hold the line.”

“That didn’t happen. But I didn’t stumble into the space left open — I saw a possibility and went for it,” she writes. “Both things are true: I am responsible for what I did. Power does not distribute consequences evenly.”

For Newsom, she writes, the affair is merely a “footnote in a longer arc of ascent. For me, it is the fracture that split my life into before and after.”

In his memoir, “Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery,” published this year, Newsom acknowledges the liaison with Rippey, describing it as “the briefest of affairs.”

He also writes that he admitted the betrayal to Tourk, a detail that Rippey takes issue with in her essay. She says she was the one who first broke the devastating news to her husband via email while she was at her parent’s house in Napa and he was home in San Francisco with their young son.

“But resentment is a luxury I can’t afford,” she writes. “Instead, I return to gratitude, not for the affair, not for the pain I caused Alex, but for the totality of what followed. I required something catastrophic to change direction. Something that made the cost of going back — of drinking again — unthinkable.”

After the affair, Rippey and Tourk divorced but continued to co-parent their son, who is now an adult. She’s been sober for 20 years, she writes, remarried and now has a son with her second husband.

“The damage was mine,” she writes at the conclusion of her essay. “But so is the life rebuilt in its wake.”

Times staff writer Taryn Luna contributed to this report.

“I’VE got a statement drafted, I’m ending it,” Katie Price told me of her fledgling marriage to Lee Andrews.

That was on February 1st.

This statement, as we all now know, never materialised. Because that’s how conmen like Lee operate: over the resulting four months he lied, scammed, obfuscated and wormed his way back into her affections.

Time and time again he has dismissed the seemingly never-ending allegations against him as a scurrilous and damaging pack of lies.

Katie, in her misguided loyalty, has sucked it up, and let him back in. But today I am going to lay bare the damning Lee Files: past recordings, voice notes, messages and shameless untruths. 

Unverified rumours of a gay affair, allegations of more people cheated of their hard-earned savings, a forthcoming appearance on Piers Morgan’s global YouTube show, horrific allegations of mental and physical abuse from former partners, mental health fakery and what really happened with the couple’s new dog, Dubaii: all shall be revealed.

My hope, in so doing, is to expose this man for the pathological liar he really is – and ensure he never, ever hurts another woman (or man) again.  

Lee, a source tells me, has left Katie no choice but to consult a divorce lawyer. 

She is also, I can confirm, refusing to return to Dubai. And with Lee locked-up, with travel ban, a reunion any time soon seems unlikely.

For Lee, literally and metaphorically, there is no coming back.

Fox TV executives knew their telecast of Sunday’s 2026 FIFA World Cup Final would be big.

But bigger than every NFL game outside of the Super Bowl, the perennial ratings blockbuster, was not on their radar.

“I have to admit that I didn’t see it coming, that we and Telemundo would combine for almost 65 million viewers for the final,” Mike Mulvihill, executive vice president and head of strategy and analytics for Fox Sports. “That’s beyond what we could have hoped for.”

Spain’s World Cup victory over Argentina by a 1-0 score attracted the largest audience for any sports telecast outside of the Super Bowl since the 1994 Winter Olympics when Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding competed in the women’s figure skating short program.

The 38.9 million viewers who tuned in on Fox was enough to make the final the most-watched soccer telecast in history. Telemundo’s coverage set the record for a Spanish language soccer telecast with 23.9 million viewers.

It capped a month of massive viewing for the quadrennial tournament. In the United States,128.4 million people watched some portion of the World Cup across Fox’s broadcast network, its cable outlet FS1 and streaming platform Tubi. The 104 matches averaged a record high 7.7 million viewers, a 116% increase over the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Spanish language coverage on NBCUniversal’s Telemundo and the Peacock streaming platform combined to average 6.3 million viewers across the 104 matches, up 143% over the 2022 tournament.

Ad revenues for the tournament topped $1.2 billion, according to data from Guideline, which tracks media spending.

Having the tournament in the U.S. with games airing in daytime and prime time helped. Mulvihill noted the tournament came up at a fortunate time on the sports viewing calendar. The NBA Finals were over and Major League Baseball’s post-season and the NFL season are months away.

But even with that soft competition for sports fans’ attention, the World Cup demonstrated an ability to bring in viewers who don’t follow the sport. Fox data showed 53% of viewers who tuned into its coverage had not watched any soccer in the past year. The network’s research found that a majority of U.S. sports fans could name only two stars, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, and their home countries.

What brought the audience in? Mulvihill credits social media, which tends to be an angry place during big sporting events. The lead up to the World Cup was no different, but the doom and gloom went away once the action began.

“There was a lot of negativity around this tournament on social as there always is about everything related to the cost of tickets and related to challenges that foreign visitors might face coming to the U.S.,” Mulvihill noted. “As soon as the ball was kicked, and the matches were in progress, that just completely pivoted to overwhelming positivity.”

Patrick Rishe, director of the sports business program at Washington University in St. Louis, said the global reach of social media made the international stars accessible to U.S. fans and created a “fear of missing out” effect that likely drove them to watch.

“There is a communal aspect of soccer, in particular, where you can be in a room with people wearing 10 different colored jerseys, and they all just kind of get into the camaraderie of it, and the highs and lows of it, and the drama of it,” Rishe said. “So even if you don’t have rooting interests, it’s just fun to be a part of it.”

The appeal of communal viewing showed up in the Nielsen data. Out-of-home viewing accounted for 27% of the audience. For Sunday’s final, the figure was 35%

People were having viewing parties or gatherings at home as well. An average of 1.955 viewers per home watched the World Cup. The figure for last year’s regular season NFL games was 1.685 viewers.

The question going forward is whether the World Cup will spur more interest in soccer in the U.S. Major League Soccer has reportedly seen significant increases in ticket sales. The league, which has most of its matches on Apple TV, launched an ad campaign with the tagline, “Thanks World, We’ll Take It From Here.”

Versant acquired the rights to carry 300 Bundesliga matches. The company’s USA Network will carry at least 30 matches from the German domestic league, with the rest streaming on the company’s free Fandango platform. The league was previously available on ESPN’s streaming service, which required a subscription.

Telemundo acquired the Spanish-language TV rights to the Union of European Football Assns. men’s club competitions, including the Champions League.

Fox paid $485 million for the rights to the 2026 World Cup, while Telemundo shelled out $600 million for the Spanish-language telecasts.

But the real prize is the rights for the 2030 World Cup, which both TV networks and streamers are expected to vigorously pursue, even though the time zones will not be as hospitable to the U.S. (The host countries are Morocco, Portugal, and Spain.)

During a recent appearance at the CNBC Sport x Boardroom Game Plan Summit in New York, ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro made it clear where he stands.

“Of course we’re interested,” Pitaro said. “This has been a juggernaut. We’re not at all surprised by it.”

But the love affair here has gone way beyond baseball, this has been a glorious embracing of two cultures. A point underlined by the news Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has declared a sister city application with Glasgow.

Fittingly, she did so in a Scottish pub wearing a Scotland football jersey.

Tens of thousands of football fans swarming to a city for a major tournament is nothing new, but it is the manner of the revelry here that has set it apart.

At the time of writing, there has not been one arrest of a Scotland fan either in Boston or Providence, another nearby stronghold of the Tartan Army.

The ground work for this Boston bash was laid two years ago in Bavaria. At the last European Championships, Marienplatz felt like it held more Scots within it than Motherwell.

Again, Scotland fans were lauded for their behaviour, generosity and patter.

Alas, the football did its best to ruin the party.

That is perhaps one key difference to this shindig, apart from the obvious step up in excitement from a Euros to their first World Cup in 28 years.

What mood the Tartan Army would have been in if the opener against Haiti had turned into a disaster we will never know. Although, I would say it would not have made a dent.

The team on the pitch have done their bit to keep the party in full swing and a point against Morocco on Friday could trigger a tidal wave of celebration flooding back into Boston that night the likes they have never seen.

The best way to describe it is this has been the trip of a lifetime for people who are still in their 20s. There is a genuine appreciation from Scotland fans that they have waited this long to see their team at a World Cup, that it may be another three decades before it happens again.

And, even if it did, nothing could rival the week in Boston they’ve just had, regardless of what Miami holds.

For near enough a week, Scotland had the city to itself. Now it has become a tapestry of nations settling into one of the warmest, most welcoming place on the Charles River they could have hoped to visit.

Who knows, they may be back here if they are one of the best third-placed teams.

What will be the Tartan Army’s Boston legacy as the sporrans are soon to get packed away and the online check-ins start for flights to Miami?

Their generosity? Their good spirit? Their ability to alert some locals to the fact the World Cup is even happening?

Perhaps all of the above. Just not a haggis supper.

Emmerdale spoilers for next week tease big moments ahead on the ITV soap, from Dr Todd being exposed, to a planned Home Farm robbery and there’s also an affair heating up

It’s another big week ahead on Emmerdale, with new spoilers teasing big plans and secrets under threat.

Charity’s desperate when Kim pulls out of the Woolpack purchase deal. She instead asks Kim for a loan, but Chas overhears their conversation. Charity confesses to Chas she’s being blackmailed by Dr. Todd about Leyla’s true parentage.

Charity and Chas hatch a plan to rob Home Farm to pay Todd. When Charity can only give Todd a portion of the money she’s demanding, Todd demands the rest of it within 24 hours, or she will reveal her secret.

Laurel and Ross’ secret affair heats up, while Gabby is devastated over her rejection from Ross. As Ross and Laurel’s passion continues, only for them to almost be rumbled by Sam.

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To cover things up, Ross claims Laurel is Sam’s new dance partner as Sam continues to have secret sessions to impress Lydia. Kim is suspicious of Sam’s shifty behaviour though, while Nicola, knowing about Ross and Laurel, almost reveals all to Manpreet.

Kerry and Pollard present a united front after being conned by Archie. Liam advises Cain to find a practical solution to start living his life again and Gabby contemplates clean living.

Emmerdale isn’t the only soap seeing big things ahead, with Hollyoaks and Home and Away also offering emotional and dramatic moments in the coming days. On Hollyoaks, Diane’s funeral arrives, and Dee Dee is devastated by her late mum’s letter to Tony.

Dee Dee publicly calls out Leela, accusing her of trying to replace Diane. As Dee Dee turns to drugs to deal with her grief, Tony is concerned.

Elsewhere, Beth is convinced the Osbornes are hiding Charlie who has decided to go on the run from the police. As she organises a family lunch, what does she have planned?

As for Home and Away, Tane wakes from his coma after his recent brutal prison attack, and he shocks Jo by dumping her after she’s been supporting him at his bedside. Alf sparks concerns after his recent driving troubles, as he’s determined to visit Martha.

But when he faces accusations of a hit and run, is he to blame? Sonny wants to move back in with Dana, and Richie and Cash continue to clash at work.

So it’s a big week across more than one soap next week, with plenty to keep focus on. As ever some things are not revealed in spoilers too with plenty under wraps, so expect twists and turns.

Emmerdale airs weeknights at 8pm on ITV1 and ITVX. * Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .