Martina Navratilova dishes out scathing criticism to ABC News for settling Donald Trump defamation lawsuit with $15 million payout

Martina Navratilova recently reacted to Donald Trump's defamation lawsuit against a renowned news media organization coming to its conclusion. The organization settled the lawsuit by agreeing to cough up $15 million. However, this development infuriated Navratilova, who happens to be a fierce critic of the President-elect.

In the immediate aftermath of ABC News agreeing to pay $15 million to Trump to settle the defamation lawsuit, CNN Chief Media Analyst Brian Stelter took to X (formerly Twitter) and wrote:

"The big Q about the Trump-ABC settlement: Why did ABC agree to pay and apologize? The network won't say. It could have kept fighting in court, but decided to pay $$ to end the dispute and make the case go away. (A common move, but with an unusual plaintiff, the president-elect.)"

Former World No. 1 and 18-time Grand Slam singles champion Martina Navratilova soon took notice of Stelter's post and reshared it. Navratilova's reshare also came with a written one-word caption of her own, through which she expressed her anger over the development at ABC News.

"Cowards," Navratilova wrote.

Donald Trump filed the defamation lawsuit after prominent ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos repeated an unsubstantiated claim during a March 2024 interview with a congresswoman supportive of the President-elect. During the interview, Stephanopoulos falsely claimed on ten occasions that Trump had been found "liable for rape".

The anchor's claim stemmed from Trump being found liable for "sexual abuse" in a civil case last year. However, sexual abuse and rape are defined differently under New York law, and as a result, using the two interchangeably isn't legally valid.

In late November this year, Navratilova herself described Trump as "a rapist" during an exchange with a staunch supporter of the President-elect.

Martina Navratilova ridiculed Donald Trump's supporter's claim that President-elect will protect women

Martina Navratilova (Source: Getty)

Nan Hayworth, a former US Representative, recently shared a post written by Martina Navratilova. Via the post, Navratilova had lauded a college team of girls who forfeited a match against the opponents because of the presence of a transgender athlete. Hayworth added her own caption to the reshare, which read:

"President Trump will restore Title IX protections for girls and women in his Administration. Happy Thanksgiving to all--including the folks who didn't support @realDonaldTrump but who will rejoice at his wise and just policies as they are implemented!!"

However, Navratilova fired back at Hayworth with a sarcastic and stinging post, as the Czech-American called the President-elect "a rapist".

"Sure, the rapist will protect women, yup," Navratilova wrote.

The former World No. 1 has previously attacked Trump over his sexual misconduct allegations as well, and ridiculed him over his bold claims about protecting women.