So turns out that hard-to-believe story in the Telegraph about Michelle Obama dropping $50,000 at an Agent Provocateur, (which the White House swiftly denied), wasn’t just false–it was pretty much completely made up, according to a recent item published the Telegraph.

The retraction reads:

Further to our article “First Lady’s luxury buys boost Agent Provocateur” (Jan 30), we would like to make clear that the “shopping spree” involving Her Highness Sheikha Moza and Michelle Obama that we referred to in fact never occurred, and that Her Highness has never been shopping with Mrs Obama, at Agent Provocateur or otherwise, and has never sought to have any part of New York closed off to enable her to shop undisturbed. We apologize for the distress and embarrassment this article caused.

When we first read reports that Michelle Obama and the Queen of Qatar had reportedly spent $50,000 at Agent Provocateur, we were skeptical.

Besides the fact that we can’t quite imagine the First Lady (or the Queen of Qatar for that matter) being such an ardent fan of the brand’s saucy, often-bondage-inspired underthings as to inspire a $50K shopping spree, we also found it hard to believe that such a media-savvy woman would publicly spend that much on anything (let alone kinky lingerie) during the time of her husband’s reelection.

It was hard to believe because it wasn’t true.

If their public hand-holding, one-on-one dinner dates and adorable family Christmas card hadn’t convinced you that the flame in the Obamas’ marriage is still very much alive then this certainly will: The First Lady reportedly dropped $50,000 in lingerie at Agent Provocateur, according to The Telegraph.

Apparently part of Madison Ave was closed off so that MObama and Queen of Qatar Sheikha Mozah could spend time in the luxury lingerie store. The two evidently liked what they saw because they snapped up enough goodies to total $50,000.

What’s more, the Telegraph is reporting that the mere rumor of Mrs. O’s lingerie spree has boosted sales by up to 12.5%. It’s been proven that the first lady has seriously selling power (a Harvard B-school study made that clear), but does the woman who shops Zara and H&M really spend $50K at Agent Provocateur?