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Melania TrumpFirst Lady of the United States, wife of the 45th President Donald Trump
Date of Birth: 26.04.1970
Country:  USA |
Content:
- Early Life and Modeling Career
- Meeting and Marriage to Donald Trump
- Modeling Stardom and Notable Collaborations
- Marriage to Donald Trump
- The Birth of Barron William Trump
- Post-Wedding Ventures and Controversies
Early Life and Modeling Career
Melania Knauss was born in 1970 in Novo Mesto, Slovenia, then part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Her father, Viktor Knauss, hailed from nearby Radece, while her mother, Amalija, came from a village near Sevnica. After briefly studying architecture and design at the University of Ljubljana, Knauss dropped out and moved to Milan to pursue her modeling career. By the age of 16, she had begun appearing in fashion shows in Milan and Paris.
Meeting and Marriage to Donald Trump
In 1999, while working for Allure magazine, Knauss met Donald Trump. Their relationship blossomed as Knauss became a professional model in New York City. The couple gained widespread attention after the launch of Trump's successful business-oriented reality show, "The Apprentice," and after Knauss appeared on "The Howard Stern Show" with Trump, where he declared his love for her.
Modeling Stardom and Notable Collaborations
Knauss's newfound fame led to collaborations with publications such as British GQ, for which she posed nude and appeared on the cover of the January 2000 issue. She graced the covers of Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Ocean Drive, In Style, New York Magazine, Avenue, Allure, Vanity Fair, Self, Glamour, Elle, and the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in 2000. Knauss also made a cameo appearance in the 2001 film Zoolander.
Marriage to Donald Trump
Trump and Knauss got engaged in 2004 and married on January 22, 2005, at the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach, Florida. The reception was held at a 17,000-square-foot ballroom at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate. Guests included Katie Couric, Matt Lauer, Rudy Giuliani, Star Jones, Barbara Walters, Regis Philbin, Kelly Ripa, and Billy Joel, who performed a chorus of "Just the Way You Are" and a rewritten version of "The Lady and the Tramp" about Trump. Hillary Clinton was also in attendance. The lavish ceremony, including Knauss's $200,000 Christian Dior wedding gown, was widely covered by the media.
The Birth of Barron William Trump
On March 20, 2006, the couple welcomed a son named Barron William Trump. Trump called into the "Imus in the Morning" radio show and declared "everything's great" after the birth of his fifth child.
Post-Wedding Ventures and Controversies
Following her marriage, Knauss monetized her celebrity status through a television commercial for the insurance company Aflac, in which she and the company's mascot duck, voiced by comedian Gilbert Gottfried, engaged in a zany Frankenstein-esque body swap experiment. In February 2010, Knauss announced the launch of her own eponymous jewelry collection.
