The Daily Telegraph has apologised “unreservedly” to Melania Trump after it published an article last week which contained “a number of false statements”.

The paper has agreed to pay the US First Lady “substantial damages” and her legal costs following its Saturday Magazine cover story on January 19 entitled “The Mystery of Melania”.

The article included claims that Trump was struggling in her modelling career before she met her husband and that she cried on election night, it said.

The Telegraph accepted that the statements should not have been published.

“Mrs Trump was not struggling in her modelling career before she met Mr Trump, and she did not advance in her career due to the assistance of Mr Trump,” the paper said in an apology published today. 

“We accept that Mrs Trump was a successful professional model in her own right before she met her husband and obtained her own modelling work without his assistance.

“The claim that Mrs Trump cried on election night is also false,” it added.

The paper also took back wrong claims that Trump’s mother, father and sister moved to New York in 2005 to live in buildings owned by Donald Trump.

It also accepted that Trump did not leave her Design and Architecture course at university for reasons relating to the completion of an exam but “because she wanted to pursue a successful career as a professional model”.

The paper added that Trump’s father was not “a fearsome presence” and “did not control the family”, claims which were made in the piece.