Melania Trump (born Melanija Knavs,[1][a]April 26, 1970; germanized to Melania Knauss) is the third wife of Americanbillionaire real estate developer and 2016 U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump.[2] She is a Slovene-American jewelry and watch designer[citation needed] and former model. Born in Slovenia, then part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, she became a permanent resident of the United States in 2001 and a citizen in 2006.[3] She actively campaigned for her husband during his 2016 presidential campaign.
Early life
Knauss was born in Novo Mesto in southeastern Slovenia (then part ofYugoslavia) on April 26, 1970.[4] Her father, Viktor Knavs, who managed car and motorcycle dealerships for a state-owned vehicle manufacturer,[5][6] and was a member of the Slovenian Communist Party, came from the nearby town of Radeče. Her mother, Amalija (Ulčnik),[5] came from the village ofRaka[7] and was a patternmaker at the children's clothing manufacturer Jutranjka in Sevnica.[5][8] Knauss has a sister, Ines,[9] and an older half-brother, whom she has never met,[10] from her father's previous relationship.[5]
Knauss grew up in a modest apartment in a concrete housing block in Sevnica, inSlovenia's Lower Sava Valley.[1] When she was a teenager, the family moved to a two-story house near Sevnica[11] and used a high-rise apartment in Ljubljana.[5]
Knauss attended the Secondary School of Design and Photography in Ljubljana[12] and studied at the University of Ljubljana for one year before dropping out.[13][14][15]
She speaks five languages: Slovenian, English, French, Serbian and German.[16]
Career
Knauss began her modeling career at age 16 and at age 17 posed for Slovenian fashion photographer Stane Jerko.[17] At 18 she signed with a modeling agency in Milan,Italy.[citation needed] 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.[5][18]
After attending the University of Ljubljana and leaving after her freshman year,[19] she then worked as a model for fashion houses in Milan and Paris, France, before relocating to New York City in 1996,[2] her contract and visa negotiated by Italian businessman Paolo Zampolli.[5] Working with photographers including Helmut Newton, Patrick Demarchelier, and Mario Testino,[6][20] she subsequently appeared on the covers of Harper's Bazaar(Bulgaria), Ocean Drive, In Style Weddings, New York Magazine, Avenue, Allure, Vanity Fair (Italy) and Vogue (following her marriage to Trump), and GQ (UK),[21] She was featured as a bikini model in the 2000 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.[22][23] As a model, she was associated with Irene Marie Management Group and Donald Trump's Trump Model Management.[24]
In the 2000s, she appeared in an advertisement for Aflac insurance in which she and the Aflac mascot, a duck, voiced at the time by comedian Gilbert Gottfried, exchange personalities via a Frankenstein-like mad experiment.[citation needed]
Marriage to Donald Trump
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After moving to New York City in 1996,[25] Knauss metDonald Trump at a Fashion Week party in New York City in September 1998, while he was still married to, but separated from, Marla Maples;[1][26] Trump attended the event with another date, Celina Midelfart, and Knauss initially refused to give Trump her phone number.[18]Knauss broke off the relationship shortly after it began, but the couple reconciled after a few months.[5] Their relationship gained attention after a 1999 interview on The Howard Stern Show.[27] In 2000, Knauss appeared with Trump while he campaigned for the Reform Party 2000 presidential nomination.[27] Their relationship gained additional publicity after the 2004 launch of Trump's successful business-oriented reality television show, The Apprentice. Donald Trump described their long courtship in 2005: "We literally have never had an argument, forget about the word 'fight' ... We just are very compatible. We get along."[26]
After becoming engaged in 2004, Donald Trump and Melania Knauss were married on January 22, 2005, at The Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach, Florida, followed by a reception in the ballroom at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.[28]
The event was attended by celebrities such as Katie Couric, Matt Lauer, Rudy Giuliani, Heidi Klum, Star Jones, P. Diddy, Shaquille O'Neal, Barbara Walters, Conrad Black, Regis Philbin, Simon Cowell, Kelly Ripa, then-Senator Hillary Clinton, and former president Bill Clinton.[28][29] At the reception, Billy Joel serenaded the crowd with "Just the Way You Are" and supplied new lyrics about Trump to the tune of "The Lady Is a Tramp".[28]
The Trumps' wedding ceremony and reception were widely covered by the media.[25]Trump wore a $200,000 dress made by John Galliano of the house of Christian Dior.[28]The cake at the reception was a 50-pound orange Grand Marnier chocolate truffle cake, with a Grand Marnier butter-cream filling, covered with 3,000 roses created by the chef at Mar-a-Lago.[28]
In 2006, Trump gave birth to a son named Barron William Trump. Donald suggested his first name and Melania his middle name.[30] As an infant, Barron reportedly occupied his own floor in the Trumps' apartment in Trump Tower in Manhattan, but often slept in a crib in his parents' bedroom.[30] He plays golf with his father and is reported to be fluent inSlovenian.[31] He is said to like wearing a suit and tie, and Melania's nickname for him is "Mini-Donald".[6]
2016 presidential campaign
In 2015, asked about her husband's presidential campaign, Trump said, "I encouraged him because I know what he will do and what he can do for America. He loves the American people and he wants to help them."[32] When asked by The New York Times in 1999 what her role would be if Donald were to become president, Trump replied: "I would be very traditional. Like Betty Ford or Jackie Kennedy. I would support him."[6]
During Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, an anti-Trump PAC published anattack ad featuring a nude photo of Melania Trump that was published in 2000 as part of aBritish GQ magazine photoshoot.[33] The photograph shows her handcuffed to a briefcase, lying on a fur blanket aboard Donald's private jet.[1][21][34]
In July 2016, Melania Trump's official web site was redirected to Trump.com. On Twitter, she stated that her site was outdated and did not "accurately reflect my current business and professional interests."[35] This change came after it was widely noted by the media that the website had falsely claimed for more than 10 years that she had a degree in architecture and design from the University of Ljubljana.[36][37][38][39][40] Her biography in the 2016 Republican National Convention official program also incorrectly stated that she had obtained a degree in Slovenia.[15][41]
Speech plagiarism controversy
"Comparing Melania Trump's Speech in 2016 with Michelle Obama's in 2008"
On July 18, 2016, Melania Trump gave a speech on the first day of the 2016 Republican National Convention. The speech contained a paragraph that was nearly identical to a paragraph of Michelle Obama's speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.[42][43][44] When asked about the speech, Melania Trump said she wrote the speech herself, "I wrote it with as little help as possible".[45]Two days later, Trump staff writer Meredith McIver took responsibility and apologized for the "confusion". The Trump family declined her offer of resignation.[46]
On July 20, 2016, McIver issued the following statement:
In working with Melania on her recent first lady speech, we discussed many people who inspired her and messages she wanted to share with the American people. A person she has always liked is Michelle Obama. Over the phone, she read me some passages from Mrs. Obama’s speech as examples. I wrote them down and later included some of the phrasing in the draft that ultimately became the final speech.[47][48]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melania_Trump
