Melania Trump (/məˈlɑːniə/; born Melanija Knavs; [mɛˈlaːnija ˈknaːu̯s], Germanized to Melania Knauss; April 26, 1970) is a Slovenian-American former fashion model and the current first lady of the United States, as the wife of the 45th president of the United States Donald Trump.
Melanija Knavs was born in Novo Mesto, and grew up in Sevnica, in the Yugoslav republic of Slovenia. She worked as a fashion model through agencies in Milan and Paris, and moved to New York City in 1996. Her modeling career was associated with Irene Marie Models and Trump Model Management.
In 2001, Knavs became a permanent resident of the United States. She married Donald Trump in 2005 and obtained U.S. citizenship in 2006. She is the second first lady (after Louisa Adams) born outside the United States, and the first one to be a naturalized citizen.
Early life:
Melanija Knavs was born in Novo Mesto, Slovenia (then part of Yugoslavia), on April 26, 1970.[9][10] Her father, Viktor Knavs (born March 24, 1944), was from the nearby town of Radeče and managed car and motorcycle dealerships for a state-owned vehicle manufacturer. Her mother Amalija (née Ulčnik) (born July 9, 1945) came from the village of Raka and worked as a patternmaker at the children's clothing manufacturer Jutranjka in Sevnica. As a child, Melania and other children of workers at the factory participated in fashion shows that featured children's clothing.[15] She has an older sister, Ines, who is an artist and her "longtime confidant" and an older half-brother—whom she reportedly has never met—from her father's previous relationship.
Knavs grew up in a modest apartment in a housing block in Sevnica, in the Lower Sava Valley. Her father was in the League of Communists of Slovenia, which espoused a policy of state atheism. As was common, however, he had his daughters secretly baptized as Catholics. When the Trumps met Pope Francis at the Vatican in 2017, Melania brought her rosary and asked the Pope to bless it.
When Knavs was a teenager, she moved with her family to a two-story house in Sevnica. As a high-school student, she lived in a high-rise apartment in Ljubljana. She attended the Secondary School of Design and Photography in Ljubljana[26] and studied architecture and design at the University of Ljubljana for one year before she dropped out.
Carrer :
Melania Trump at QVC Red Carpet Style Party, 2011
She began modeling at five years old and started doing commercial work at sixteen when she posed for the Slovenian fashion photographer Stane Jerko.[30][31] When she began working as a model, she adapted the Slovene version of her last name "Knavs" to the German version "Knauss".
At eighteen, she signed with a modeling agency in Milan, Italy. In 1992, she was named runner-up in the 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 for one year,[35] she modeled for fashion houses in Paris and Milan, wherein 1995 she met Metropolitan Models co-owner Paolo Zampolli, a friend of her future husband Donald Trump, who was on a scouting trip in Europe. Zampolli urged her to travel to the United States, where he said he would like to represent her.
In 1996, Knauss moved to Manhattan.[15][34][33][36] Zampolli arranged for her to share an apartment with photographer Matthew Atanian in Zeckendorf Towers in Union Square.
Knauss was featured in a sexually explicit photoshoot for the January 1996 issue of Max, a now-defunct French men's magazine, with another female model. She also posed nude for the January 2000 edition of GQ magazine, appearing on the cover naked but for diamond jewelry, reclining on fur, aboard Trump's custom-fitted Boeing 727. Asked about the photos in 2016, Donald Trump said: "Melania was one of the most successful models, and she did many photo shoots, including for covers and major magazines. [The Max photo] was a picture taken for a European magazine prior to my knowing Melania. In Europe, pictures like this are very fashionable and common."
In 2010, she launched her own line of jewelry, Melania Timepieces, and Jewelry, for sale on QVC. She also marketed a Melania Skin Care Collection, sold in high-end department stores. According to a financial filing in 2016, her businesses brought in between $15,000 and $50,000 in royalties that year. In 2017, the two companies that manufactured her jewelry and skincare products under license said they had terminated their relationship with her. On inauguration day her companies and products were listed in her official White House biography, but they were quickly removed. A White House spokesperson said her companies are no longer active and "the First Lady has no intention of using her position for profit and will not do so."
She speaks five languages: her native Slovenian, Serbian, English, French, and German.
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