on june 21, 2019, eleven days before the announced publishing of her new book "what do we need men for?: a modest proposal", carroll wrote in "new york" magazine that donald trump sexually assaulted her in the fall of 1995 or the spring of 1996 in a bergdorf goodman store in new york city. bbc news described it as a rape allegation. carroll wrote that she had not had sexual intercourse with anyone since the alleged assault. she also wrote that she had told two friends of the incident. the two friends confirmed with "new york" that they indeed had such conversations with carroll. the essay was part of an excerpt of carroll's book "what do we need men for? a modest proposal", which was published on july 2, 2019. the white house and trump denied the allegation. the next day, trump denied having ever met carroll or knowing of her. however, in the "new york" magazine article, carroll provided a photograph which showed her meeting trump in 1987 along with her then-husband and trump's then-wife ivana. the two friends carroll had confided in was revealed when they and carroll appeared on a podcast of the "new york times"; they were writer lisa birnbach and news anchor carol martin. carroll refused to say she was "raped", instead choosing to describe it thus: "my word is fight."