Technically speaking it wasn’t “hush money”. She wasn’t technically paid for her silence. She sold the exclusive story rights so she was not permitted to sell/tell the story to magazines or TV shows. Whether it was true or not. And this kind of deal is not totally unheard of. In showbiz people pay for exclusive rights pretty regularly.
The other side of that coin though is extortion. Assume the story is false or at least lacking in evidence, it is possible she made the assertion in order to extract a payoff - which she received. That would be a crime.
Very interesting, thx.