"I am really grateful for and touched by the worldwide outpouring of love and concern. Thank you.
"I am feeling good and enjoying total support from my family and friends, along with a team of wellness and medical practitioners both here in the US and at my Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness and Research Centre in Melbourne, Australia.
"I’m totally confident that my new journey will have a positive success story to inspire others!"
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| Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump |
Six colleagues and close friends who corroborate former PEOPLE writer Natasha Stoynoff’s account of being attacked by Donald Trump in 2005 are now coming forward. Among them is a friend who was with Stoynoff when she ran into Melania Trump later in N.Y.C.
The wife of the Republican nominee denies meeting Stoynoff after the attack, but Stoynoff’s friend Liza Herz remembers being there during the chance meeting.
“They chatted in a friendly way,” Herz, who met Stoynoff in college, says. “And what struck me most was that Melania was carrying a child and wearing heels.”
Marina Grasic, who has known Stoynoff for more than 25 years, says she got a call from her friend the day after the attack. Stoynoff detailed everything about the attack, from Trump pushing her against a wall to the business mogul showing up at her massage appointment the following day, she says.
According to Grasic, her longtime friend was embarrassed and even thought of Trump’s then-pregnant wife when deciding not to come forward about the encounter.
“Natasha was also struggling about not hurting pregnant Melania if the story came out,” Grasic says. “Beyond just the attack, she was horrified by the vulgar circumstances under which she was attacked and propositioned to have an affair. She was there in a professional capacity, writing an article about their happy marriage, and after the incident Trump acted like nothing happened.
Stoynoff’s former journalism professor, Paul McLaughlin, says that the writer called him in tears looking for advice the very night of the harrowing encounter. However, he cautioned her to remain quiet in fear of how Trump may retaliate.
“She wasn’t sure what she should do,” McLaughlin recalls. “I advised her not to say anything, because I believed Trump would deny it and try to destroy her.”
Our photo team shot the Trumps on the lush grounds of their Florida estate, and I interviewed them about how happy their first year of marriage had been. When we took a break for the then very-pregnant Melania to go upstairs and change wardrobe for more photos, Donald wanted to show me around the mansion. There was one “tremendous” room in particular, he said, that I just had to see.
We walked into that room alone, and Trump shut the door behind us. I turned around, and within seconds, he was pushing me against the wall, and forcing his tongue down my throat.
Now, I’m a tall, strapping girl who grew up wrestling two giant brothers. I even once sparred with Mike Tyson. It takes a lot to push me. But Trump is much bigger—a looming figure—and he was fast, taking me by surprise, and throwing me off balance. I was stunned. And I was grateful when Trump’s longtime butler burst into the room a minute later, as I tried to unpin myself.
The butler informed us that Melania would be down momentarily, and it was time to resume the interview.
I was still in shock, and remained speechless as we both followed him to an outdoor patio overlooking the grounds. In those few minutes alone with Trump, my self-esteem crashed to zero. How could the actions of one man make me feel so utterly violated?
"It's a huge honor," Beckham, 40, tells PEOPLE of scoring our 30th anniversary Sexiest Man crown. "And I'm very pleased to accept."
"I never feel that I'm an attractive, sexy person," he says in this week's cover story. "I mean I like to wear nice clothes and nice suits and look and feel good, but I don't ever think of myself that way."
Still, when Beckham shared the news with his wife, fashion mogul Victoria Beckham, 41, she was totally on-board.
"I would hope that she feels this way about me all the time anyway!" he says with a shy smile. "But she said, 'Congratulations!' "
"We kind of laughed about it with the boys and the boys kind of laughed at me and said, 'Really?! Sexiest man alive? Really?' "
The actress has left a big impression on Hollywood (and America) in a very short amount of time.
Cox's skillful performance as Sophia on Orange Is the New Black and her work advocating for transgender women make her one of our boldest beauties yet.
"I am part Sicilian," he tells PEOPLE in this week's cover story. "I am passionate. I am a hot-blooded person. If you don't like spicy, then maybe I'm not for you."
"I'm at my best when I have someone to wake up next to."
As for his favorite part of a woman, "I'm big into smell," he says. "It's funny I got cast as a werewolf. There's something about the smell on that part of a woman's neck where it meets the jaw, ahhhh! It's heaven."
