The day Donald Trump caught his eye on Melania and fell in love with her
They met at a party at New York Fashion Week in 1998. Their first date was at Moomba, the then hot spot in Manhattan.
In the 90s, Paolo Zampolli was one of the most powerful men in the fashion industry in New York. His agency, ID Models, had Ana Hickmann, Cinthia Moura, Angie Everhart and Melania Knauss (47). In 1998, during the city's Fashion Week, he organized a party to which all of Manhattan was invited. Donald Trump (70), then a successful businessman related to the Miss World pageant, came with a girlfriend. He was divorcing his second wife, Marla Maples.
When Trump saw Knauss the alarms went off: "Who is that?" Asked the tycoon, dazzled by the model. "He was a very successful model. He was amazing. I tried to get his phone number but he wouldn't give it to me," he said later.
"He told me that he had sent his girlfriend to the bathroom so he could come over to me and ask for the phone," the first lady recalled in an interview on People, "and I thought, 'How twisted.' So Knauss, today Trump, told him no, he wouldn't give him his number, if he wanted to, give him his. It was a strategy of the model, according to him, because he wanted to know what number he would give him. "I wanted to see what he was doing… If he had given me a business phone, what did that mean? I was not going to do business with him."
Trump, delivered, gave him all his numbers, including the office in Mar-o-Lago, his home in New York ... All. Melania went to the Caribbean for a few days for a photo session and on her return, she decided to call the tycoon who had impressed her "because of his energy." And she adds: "She has an impressive sense of vitality."
They stayed a few days later and he took her to dinner at Moomba, which at that time (closed in 2001) was the place with the most famous people per square meter (Madonna with Warren Beatty was seen there for the first time). "I remember that night as if it were two months ago," declared the new first lady in an in-depth interview in Harper’s Bazaar published a week ago.
After several years of dating, the couple married in Palm Beach, Florida in 2005 at a party attended by numerous familiar faces, including Clinton, to whom Trump had donated funds for her foundation. The bride wore an extravagant and pompous dress designed by John Galliano for Dior that cost more than 200,000 euros and more than 1,000 of work.
"He is a very romantic man," says the wife of the new US president, who apparently balances her husband with a temperate and very measured character. Raised in the Slovenian town of Novo Mesto, Melania Trump studied Architecture and Design at the University of Ljubljana, where she began working as a model. "I was always the tallest and the slimmest, that was a great help in fashion," she remembers from her youth, times when she enjoyed practicing gymnastics in her city and skiing in the winters in Italy. Little by little she made her way into the world of mannequins, with jobs in Milan and Paris (she speaks Italian and French fluently, as well as Slovenian and English).
With a strong Eastern European accent, Trump often answers journalists with a low tone of voice that has led many to describe her as shy. None of that, she says, "I'm not shy, the problem is that the media interview people who don't know me at all, people who are looking for their 15 minutes of fame."
With the triumph in Europe came the litmus test: New York. "I came for my career and it went so well that I moved. But it never crossed my mind to stay in the United States without papers. It all depends on who you are. You follow the rules. You follow the law. Every few months you have to fly to Europe to sign your visa. After several visas, I decided to apply for the green card (residence permit) and I got it in 2001 (I was already with Trump). After the green card I applied for citizenship. It has been a very long process. "
A process that has led her to the White House, where she does not plan to move at the moment. She wants her son, Barron (10), to finish school before subjecting him to changes in his life. She has focused her life on taking care of her daughter and does not even have a babysitter. "I have a cook and a maid, nothing more," he says, "my plate is full so I have enough." Proud of her husband - together they agreed to the decision to run for president - her words lead to that point of calm that many men crave. "I'm not the typical woman who tells her husband 'you have to learn this or that'. I don't want to change him. And he doesn't want to change me."
Those who really know her say that Melania is the counterpoint to Donald's overflowing energy. CNN producer Pamela Gross hosted Trump's baby shower at her home, so they are close friends. And he knows how to define the situation: "While he is thinking and always going forward, she gives him calm and serenity."
The new first lady has four years to go to show the world who she really is. She prefers to stay in the background, she has shown it in recent months. We'll see how it continues ...
