Nearly two months ago, CNN reached out to Melania Trump’s book publisher to request an interview with the former first lady ahead of her upcoming memoir. After several exchanges about a possible interview, the publisher sent an unusual demand last week: an interview would cost $250,000.
In an email to CNN, Skyhorse Publishing sent a document labeled, “Confidentiality and Nondisclosure Agreement” that laid out strict terms for an interview and use of material from the book, titled “Melania,” due to publish on October 8. On top of that, the agreement stipulated that “CNN shall pay a licensing fee of two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000).”
CNN did not sign the agreement.
Days later, after a separate CNN journalist asked Skyhorse Publishing about the exorbitant interview fee, the publisher said it had sent the payment demand by mistake.
“Neither Melania nor anyone from her team knew anything about the NDA and the document that was sent reflected an internal miscommunication,” Tony Lyons, the president and publisher of Skyhorse, told CNN in a statement. “Had CNN signed an NDA, in the normal course of business, we would have approached Melania’s team to discuss [specifics of the interview],” Lyons said.
Paying a public figure for an interview, especially the spouse of a political candidate, is highly frowned upon in most newsrooms, which tend to have strict guidelines against such a practice. It is also highly unusual for the request to come from a representative purportedly acting on behalf of the spouse of a presidential candidate and a former first lady -– especially with such a large price tag.
Melania Trump’s spokesperson declined comment. A spokesperson for CNN also declined to comment.
Even if the request was a miscommunication, the asking price in the NDA reflects a similar amount she has been compensated for in the past.
Last month, CNN revealed that the former first lady spoke at two political fundraisers for the Log Cabin Republicans this year, and she was paid $237,500 for an April event, according to former President Donald Trump’s latest financial disclosure form. The payment was listed as a “speaking engagement.”
Records show Melania Trump was also paid $250,000 for a Log Cabin Republican event in December 2022, one of three payments for $250,000 or more that she received for speaking that month, just after the former president announced he was running for reelection, according to Donald Trump’s prior year financial disclosure form.
The contract
The “Confidential Material” in the contract is described as “the unpublished manuscript of the Work, notes, letters, photos, or verbal information of any kind and any information obtained from any third party that Publisher or Author treats as proprietary and designates as Confidential Material.”
Any CNN employee who would work on the interview would need to sign the NDA, the contract states, and each breach of the NDA would entitle Trump and/or her publisher “liquidated damages” of $100,000, according to the document.
The NDA has signature lines for CNN, Lyons, president of Skyhorse Publishing, which is distributed by Simon & Schuster, and the former first lady’s agent Marc Beckman.
It is specifically noted in the contract that the payment would be for an interview with a media company - CNN – as well as for licensing photos and excerpts from the book. Even if the contract was sent as an “internal miscommunication” it’s an unusual request from the publisher of such a high-profile individual.
“It’s totally unprecedented. No former first lady has ever done that,” said Kate Anderson Brower, author of “First Women: The Grace and Power of America’s Modern First Ladies.”
Anita McBride, director of The Legacies of America’s First Ladies Initiative at American University and a former special assistant in the George W. Bush White House, said that while first ladies have received handsome fees for writing books, such a payment for a news interview is unusual.
“It is a consistent practice with Mrs. Trump to make the choices that work for her and to be unburdened by any past practice by anyone else. She is her own enterprise when it comes to everything in her life,” McBride said. “That’s the premise of her book. I’ve made my choices and not constricted by anyone else before her.”
Ahead of her memoir’s release, Trump has thus far only been interviewed by Fox News, which touted last month’s sit-down with Ainsley Earhardt as an exclusive, the first with the former first lady in two years. The interview included what appeared to be old family and personal photographs.
Trump was also interviewed by Fox’s Sean Hannity Wednesday evening and has an interview with Maria Bartiromo airing Sunday.
“We did not pay any fee whatsoever for the interviews, including licensing fees for photos,” a spokesperson for Fox News told CNN.
Spokespeople for ABC, NBC and CBS declined to comment on whether they received a similar request for payment from Trump’s publisher.
On Thursday, the former first lady posted a short video on X saying “there is no room for compromise” when it comes to a woman’s “individual freedom.” The post came after The Guardian reported excerpts from Trump’s forthcoming book in which she says she supports abortion rights “free from any intervention or pressure from the government.”
Paying for the story
While it’s not unheard of for news organizations to pay for exclusive rights for materials or interviews – especially connected to scandals – it is viewed by the industry as crossing ethical boundaries and is not standard practice.
Payment “incentivizes the subject to alter what they’re saying to make it more valuable to the organization, to exaggerate or sensationalize,” said Kelly McBride, Senior Vice President and Chair of the Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership at The Poynter Institute (no relation to Anita McBride). “Your goal when you interview people is to bring their perspective in so you can get closer to the truth, and if they have some sort of incentive to distort that you are failing your audience.”
McBride said news organizations will often get around paying for an interview by instead paying to license material like photos or videos.
In 2008, ABC News paid Casey Anthony $200,000 for the exclusive use of family photographs and videos of her daughter, whose body was later discovered. The payments were not disclosed until a court filing related to Anthony’s case in 2010. (A source at ABC News told CNN on Wednesday the network does not pay for interviews).
NBC once placed money in a trust fund for a Washington state high school student who faked a pregnancy as a senior project in exchange for video of the student revealing the ruse to her classmates.
But any payment or donation from reporters or news organizations related to politics is considered the ultimate anathema, because of conflicts of interest.
In 2015, ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos apologized for failing to disclose $75,000 in donations to the Clinton Foundation, later recusing himself from ABC’s planned 2016 Republican presidential primary debate.
Even though Melania Trump is not running for her office, political spouses are often viewed as a package deal with their candidate partners, said McBride of the Poynter Institute. But in this case, the Trump campaign hasn’t been involved in Melania Trump’s book rollout.
Married couples are usually considered a single economic entity, with shared bank accounts and property, McBride noted. In a divorce, assets are usually considered shared even if both parties are not listed on the accounts. But Melania and Donald Trump reportedly have a prenuptial agreement, so it’s not clear how much of their accounts, if any, are shared.
“It’s super suspect that a political figure’s spouse would want to be paid for something,” McBride said.
This story has been updated with additional information.
CNN’s Brian Stelter contributed to this report.
