CNN says Melania Trump publisher asked for $250K fee in response to interview request

Representatives for former first lady Melania Trump’s book publisher requested $250,000 in exchange for an interview with her ahead of the release of her forthcoming memoir, CNN reported.

As CNN was working to secure an interview with Melania Trump, Skyhorse Publishing sent the network a document labeled “Confidentiality and Nondisclosure Agreement.” The agreement set “strict terms for an interview and use of material from the book,” the outlet reported Thursday.

The document stipulated that “CNN shall pay a licensing fee of two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000),” according to CNN, which noted it did not sign the document.

When a CNN journalist followed up days later asking about the fee, Skyhorse Publishing president and publisher Tony Lyons replied, “Neither Melania nor anyone from her team knew anything about the NDA and the document that was sent reflected an internal miscommunication.”

The Hill has contacted Skyhorse Publishing for further comment.

The former first lady rarely grants interviews, but sat last week for an exclusive one-on-one with Fox News, airing on its flagship morning program “Fox & Friends.”

Fox said Thursday in a statement to The Hill that the outlet “did not pay any fee whatsoever for the interview, including licensing fees for photos.”

During her conversation with Fox anchor Ainsley Earhardt, Trump spoke about the recent assassination attempts against her husband, former President Trump, denounced the 2022 raid on their Mar-a-Lago resort for classified documents as an “invasion of privacy” and attacked mainstream media outlets over coverage of the 2024 presidential election.