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Melania Trump has said that she speaks English, Italian, French, and German in addition to her native Slovenian.
Melania Trump’s modeling career
At 5 feet 11 inches tall, Melania Trump was scouted by photographer Stane Jerko in Slovenia in 1987. She dropped out of architecture school to pursue modeling, appearing on runways in Paris and Milan before moving to the US on a tourist visa in 1996.
Melania Trump posed nude for photos that appeared in a French edition of GQ in 1996. The New York Post resurfaced the photos in 2016 during Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. She also posed nude on Donald Trump’s Boeing 727 private plane for GQ in 2000. That same year, she appeared in the swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated.
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Melania Trump is the second first lady to be born outside the US. The first was Louisa Catherine Adams, the wife of President John Quincy Adams.
When Melania Trump met Donald Trump
Melania and Donald Trump met in 1998 when she was 28 years old at a party thrown by their mutual friend, Paolo Zampolli. At the time, Donald Trump was separated from his second wife, Marla Maples. Their divorce was finalized in 1999.
The couple briefly broke up in 2000 but reconciled a few months later. Donald Trump proposed in 2004 with a 15-carat, $1.5 million engagement ring.
Melania Trump’s marriage to Donald Trump
Melania Trump and Donald Trump’s wedding took place on January 22, 2005.
The ceremony was held at the Bethesda-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church in Palm Beach, Florida, and Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club hosted the reception. Melania Trump’s wedding dress was designed by Christian Dior and embellished with 1,500 crystals and pearls.
They welcomed a son, Barron Trump, in 2006.
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She often appeared in sunglasses that obscured much of her face, sparking an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory that she had a body double who would stand in for her at events. Melania Trump’s then-spokesperson, Stephanie Grisham, debunked the theory, and Donald Trump slammed reports about the rumors, saying that “fake news” was “only getting more deranged with time!”
Melania Trump occasionally wore outfits that proved controversial. In 2017, she wore a $51,500 Dolce & Gabbana jacket at the G7 Summit in Italy that garnered criticism for its steep price tag. She was also criticized for wearing Manolo Blahnik pumps to board Marine One on her way to visit sites impacted by Hurricane Harvey.
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Donald Trump addressed Melania Trump’s absence on “Meet the Press” in 2023, telling moderator Kristen Welker, “She’s a private person, a great person, a very confident person, and she loves our country very much.”
“And honestly, I like to keep her away from it,” he said of the campaign trail. “It’s so nasty and so mean.”
In 2023, she attended Rosalynn Carter’s funeral along with former first ladies Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush, and Michelle Obama.
In a rare joint appearance, she accompanied Donald Trump to vote in Florida’s 2024 primary election.
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Melania Trump attended the final night of the 2024 Republican National Convention and joined Donald Trump onstage after his address, but did not give a speech herself.
She did not appear in the courtroom during Donald Trump’s hush-money trial.
Melania Trump’s memoir, titled “Melania,” is due to be released on October 8, 2024.
“As a private person who has often been the subject of public scrutiny and misrepresentation, I feel a responsibility to clarify the facts,” she said in a post on X.
Donald Trump and Melania Trump’s net worth
Melania Trump’s individual net worth is unclear, but Donald Trump was worth an estimated $3.9 billion as of October 2024, according to Forbes.