Melania Trump also is known as Melanija was born in Novo Mesto in Southeastern Slovenia (then part of Yugoslavia) on April 26, 1970.
Her parents were Amalija and Viktor Knavs. Her father managed car and motorcycle dealerships for a state-owned vehicle manufacturer and was a member of the Slovenian Communist Party.
She grew up in a modest apartment in a concrete housing block in Sevnica, in Slovenia’s Lower Sava Valley.
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Melania attended the Secondary School of Design and Photography in Ljubljana and studied at the University of Ljubljana for one year before dropping out.
Modeling Career And Migration To The United States
In August 1996, through her lawyer Michael Wildes, Melania was said to have entered the United States on a business Visitor Visa.
In October 1996, she obtained an H-1B visa (a visa given to foreign workers in specialty occupations). After that, she regularly returned to Slovenia to obtain series of four more one-year work visas because, at the time, one-year visas were all that were permitted under the U.S. agreement with Slovenia.
She obtained a green card and became a lawful permanent resident in 2001, applying as a model of “extraordinary ability”. She obtained U.S. citizenship in 2006, the year after her marriage to Donald Trump.
Melania Trump began her Modeling Career at the age of 16 when she posed for the Slovenian fashion photographer Stane Jerko. At the age of 18, she signed with a modeling agency in Milan Italy.
She was named runner-up in the 1992 Jana Magazine “Look of the Year” contest, held in Ljubljana, which promised its top three contestants an international modeling contract.
After attending the University of Ljubljana and dropping out to focus on her modeling career. She worked as a model for fashion houses in Milan and Paris before relocating to New York City in 1996, her contract and visa were negotiated by Italian businessman Paolo Zampolli.
She has appeared on the covers of Harper’s Bazaar (Bulgaria), Ocean Drive, In Style Weddings, New York Magazine, Avenue, Allure, Vanity Fair (Italy), Vogue (following her marriage to Donald Trump) and GQ (UK).
She featured as a bikini model in the 2000 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. As a model, she was associated with Irene Marie Management Group and Donald Trump’s Trump Model Management.
Meeting Donald Trump
In the course of Melania’s career as a model, she met Donald Trump at a New York fashion Party in September 1998 while he was still married to, but separated from his second wife, Marla Maples.
Marriage To Trump
She is Donald Trump’s third wife after Ivana Trump and Marla Maples.
Her relationship with Trump lasted for about 7 years and their relationship gained publicity in 2004 after the lunch of Donald’s business-oriented reality Television show, The Apprentice. Melania and Trump got engaged afterward in the same year.
On January 22, 2005, Donald and Melania tied the knot at The Episcopal Church of Bethesda by the Sea in Palm Beach, Florida, followed by a reception in the ballroom at Donald’s Mar-a-Lago Estate.
The wedding was well attended by celebrities including the former President Bill Clinton and then-Senator Hillary Clinton.
Melania Trump wore a wedding gown made by John Galliano of the house of Christian Dior. The gown cost $100,000 and was draped with 1,500 crystals. Her wedding ring was a 12-carat gold emerald-cut Graff that cost £1.5m.
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On March 20, 2006, Melania gave birth to Barron William Trump. She suggested his middle name while her husband his first name.
Role In The Just Concluded US Presidential Election
Melania played a very vital role during her husband’s campaign for Presidency. In July 2016, Melania’s official website was redirected to Trump.com…..?
Other Interesting Things You Must Know About Melania Trump
She is the only First Lady to have posed nude. The Bombshell Photo shoot happened three years before she met Donald and it was for a French men’s monthly magazine.
She lay naked in a bed alongside Scandinavian model Emma Eriksson. The photographer Jarl Ale de Basseville said the images were for beauty and not porn but Donald in reaction said: In Europe pictures like this are very fashionable and common.
She speaks six languages: her native Slovenian language, and then Serbian, English, French, Italian, and German.
Melania is the third wife of President Trump. Before Donald Trump married Melania, he was married for a few years in the 1990s to Marla Maples, a television personality, former beauty queen and mother to their daughter Tiffany Trump.
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Trump’s first wife was Ivana Zelnickova, whom he married in 1977. They have three children – Ivana, Eric, and Donald Trump Jr. who’s the eldest, now 38years old and eight years younger than his stepmother Melania.
Melania’s wedding gown was made by Michael Galliano from the house of Christian Dior and it took the legend 550 hours to make the dress with 1,500 crystals. It had 13ft train and the bride wore a 16ft veil.
Melania’s wedding with Trump ranks among the top 10 most extravagant weddings for its scale and grandeur.
Melania Is The Least Popular Presidential Spouse Since Hillary Clinton
News had it that according to the survey conducted recently on the spouses and running mates of both presidential candidates, Clinton’s husband former President Bill was named the most popular followed by his vice-president Tim Kaine. Mike Pence came third.
On the spouses’ side, Barbara Bush was the most popular, followed by Clinton and then Michelle Obama, Melania was the least.
Melania Has A Secret Half-Brother
News has it that Melania’s father already had a son before getting married to Melania’s mother Amalia (Amalija).
Knavs agreed to pay child support after the court proved he was Denis Cigelnjak’s father. But he has never contacted his son nor acknowledged his existence. Now he is 50 years old and still lives in the family’s native Slovenia.
Melania Trump is the second foreign-born First Lady of the United States, following Louisa Adams in 1825. Louisa was born in London, United Kingdom.
Melania’s father Viktor is aged 72 while her spouse Donald is two years younger than her father.
Melania is raising her 10-year-old son Barron as ‘Little Donald’. In 2011, during an interview, Melania said that Barron likes wearing a suit and tie and playing golf with his dad. He also shares his father’s love of bossing people around. He fires nannies, fires housekeepers and quickly hires them back.
She also said that Barron is very strong-minded, very special, Independent, Smart, opinionated and knows exactly what he really wants. Sometimes she calls him “Little Donald”.
In 2000, during an interview with New York Times, Melania said if she was ever going to become First Lady, her style icons would be “very traditional – like Betty Ford or Jackie Kennedy”
Cause As The First Lady Of The United States
Melania Trump chose Cyberbullying to be her cause for when she assumes her role as the First Lady of the US in 2017.
