The article also claimed that Melania Trump's family lived in buildings owned by her husband. (AFP)

UK's Daily Telegraph on Saturday apologized "unreservedly" to US First Lady Melania Trump and agreed to pay her "substantial damages" for an article it published last week. The paper said its Saturday Magazine cover story "The Mystery of Melania" published on January 19 consisted of a number of false statements, BBC reported.

These included claims that the US First Lady was struggling in her modelling career before she met her husband and that she cried on election night, it said.

In an apology on Saturday, the Daily Telegraph accepted that Melania Trump was "a successful professional model in her own right before she met her husband and obtained her own modelling work without his assistance".

It said the article also wrongly claimed that her parents and sister relocated to New York in 2005 to live in buildings owned by her husband and later US President Donald Trump.

The paper added that the First Lady's father was not "a fearsome presence" and "did not control the family" as alleged in the article.