Cover protecting beautiful woman that's defamed (8)
I believe the answer is:
libelled
'defamed' is the definition.
'cover protecting beautiful woman' is the wordplay.
'cover' becomes 'lid' (lid is a kind of cover**).
'protecting' is an insertion indicator.
'beautiful woman' becomes 'belle' (I've seen this before).
'lid' placed around 'belle' is 'LIBELLED'.
'that's' is the link.
(Other definitions for libelled that I've seen before include "Printed slanderous statements" , "Published lies about (someone)" , "Published false and damaging material about someone" , "Traduced" , "Published false statements about a person" .)