6 little known facts about Melania Trump
![The first lady met Donald Trump at a fashion week party. [Photo: Getty]](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/IDjzUu1Lx03TJAF0o6PwPQ--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTEyNDI7aD02Nzc-/https://media.zenfs.com/en/homerun/feed_manager_auto_publish_494/d5176f7c940bb136c6fbdd28d294d0d4)
Today marks Melania Trump’s 49th birthday.
It’s common knowledge that the First Lady is US President, Donald Trump‘s third wife. It’s also reported that she’s famously quiet.
Over the years she has dodged the limelight so much that it was rumoured she had “disappeared“. There was even theory circulating that Donald Trump wanders around with a “fake Melania“.
But, what else do we know?
![The “fake Melania” theory was revived last month when the couple were spotted together in Georgia, US. [Photo: Getty]](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/WLm5V2f61gjDllFlgsHhUQ--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTUyMg--/https://media.zenfs.com/en/homerun/feed_manager_auto_publish_494/7513390ae5b3da8f5e18bf858528a61f)
Melania met Donald at a Fashion Week party
Apparently, Melania and Donald met at a New York Fashion Week party in 1998. The New Yorker reported that she refused to give him her number when she asked for it because he arrived with somebody else.
Melania took his, though and soon enough they were an item. They had a brief relationship hiatus in 2000, but they quickly got back on track and were engaged in 2004.
Their wedding was a lavish affair. A host of A-listers were there from Anna Wintour to Simon Cowell. Her bespoke Dior wedding dress, which is reported to have taken around 550 hours to, reportedly cost around $100,000. She later changed into a Vera Wang number for the Mar-a-Lago reception.
Click below for a look at the First Lady’s work wardrobe:
Her father has been likened to Donald Trump
Some of Melania Trump’s childhood friends talked about her early years in the New York Times. They described her father as a “larger than life personality” who carries himself in a way not dissimilar to the US President.
Growing up in Slovenia (which was then part of Yugoslavia), her father, Viktor Knavs, was a travelling car salesman. Her mother, Amalija, worked as a pattern maker.
READ MORE: Melania Trump’s response to Anna Wintour’s cover “snub”
![Viktor and Amalija Knavs at the White House earlier this year. [Photo: Getty]](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/fBOucoagfZtvzTihD7WBgw--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTYxOA--/https://media.zenfs.com/en/homerun/feed_manager_auto_publish_494/184906b750149d3441d7c27ab1196934)
She studied design and architecture
She began and then dropped out of architecture school at the University of Ljubljana. At that point she was more focused on her modelling career.
The First Lady’s modelling work had been primarily in print up until 1992 when she took on the German spelling of her name and became Melania Knauss.
She launched her international modelling career shortly after.
She’s the only first lady whose first language was not English
Not only that, she can speak a wealth of other languages.
The languages include: English, French, Italian, German, Serbian and her native language, Slovenian.
That’s quite an impressive CV.
READ MORE: Melania Trump mocked for wearing Timberland boots
She had a successful modelling career
Shortly after launching her international modelling career in Milan and Paris, she moved to New York. She was brought over to the US by an agency owner who was also friends with Donald Trump.
She had a very successful modelling career in magazines from Sports Illustrated to Vogue. She was also the only First Lady to ever pose nude for magazines, which includes a photo spread in British GQ in 2000.
READ MORE: Ivanka Trump hits back at art exhibit
She doesn’t use a nanny
Despite being the First Lady and living a lavish lifestyle, she doesn’t have a nanny.
She told Harper’s Bazaar in 2016: “I have a chef, and I have my assistant, but that’s it. I do it myself. You know those hours with your child are really important ones.”
