Thirteen years of the "yes, I want" that made Melania the "trophy wife" of President Donald Trump
The businessman and the model were married on January 22, 2005 at their Mar-a-Lago mansion, at a wedding attended by a multitude of familiar faces. Also the then presidential couple, Bill and Hillary Clinton
While Donald Trump was swearing in his position as president of the United States, the first cry against his administration was born: #SaveMelania (#SalvaraMelania). The serious face of the first lady, Melania Trump, did not go unnoticed by anyone. The publication of the book "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House", in which it was revealed that the Slovenian had cried after learning of her husband's victory in the elections, confirmed that Melania was not interested in either the White House or the role of First Lady.
For years, the only role that Melania plays, and she does it perfectly, is that so stale that "She dances alone" she dedicated a song to: that of a vase woman. When Donald Trump announced that he was going to marry for the third time, the American gossip columns agreed when talking about his future wife: a young model, who would require less effort from the businessman as a husband, a "human testimony of the tycoon's manhood, decorative, polite, not annoying at all».
Melania has been denying for years that she is "a vase wife" for Trump. Trump, before her closest circle, refers to her as "my trophy woman." This January 22 they celebrate 13 years of marriage. Judge if it's bad luck or not.
Rich boy meets humble girl
Donald Trump first noticed Melania Knauss in 1998. Born Melanija Knavs, she was always clear that her future was not in her native Slovenia. She studied design at the University of Ljubljana, she started working as a model and in 1995 she jumped on a plane without looking back to move to the United States. She was then born Melania Knauss, an easier and more glamorous name for a young woman from a communist country.
Three scantily clad posing years later, Knauss caught the eye of businessman Donald Trump at the Kit Kat Club, a trendy Times Square venue. In the middle of New York Fashion Week, the place was frequented by two types of people: models and model hunters. Trump himself went with a model, the Norwegian Celina Midelfart, and took advantage of a visit to his partner's bathroom to approach Melania. She asked for her phone number, but he was the one who ended up giving his to Knauss. They soon began a romance in which, according to one of the mannequin's friends, Trump asked her: "What you like about me is my small hands, not my money, right?"
Donald Trump and Melania Knauss dated for seven years before getting engaged. When the wedding plans were serious, the model managed to take her fiancĂ© to Slovenia. “I was there thirteen minutes. We landed, I greeted his parents and said goodbye to get on my plane quickly, "said the president on the Larry King program. Before the wedding, Melania's parents and her sister, Ines, had an apartment in New York at their disposal.
From the moment she agreed to marry Trump, Melania wears the ring of her left hand known as "Lord of the Rings". Emerald cut and a size of more than 12 carats, white, the engagement ring is signed by Graff jewelry. It cost three million dollars, but there are two versions of the payment: in the first, it is stated that the now president paid half the value of it in exchange for advertising the jewelry on his program "The Apprentice". The second version ensures that it came out for free.
The "discount" wedding
The ring wasn't the only thing that was free at the businessman's third wedding, which came to be known as "the discount wedding." Many brands wanted to participate in the link. “For every thing there are five people who want to do it. They want nothing in return, only recognition. Only a fool would say: no, thanks," Trump apologized in "The New York Times."
The stunning Dior dress that Melania married took 550 hours of work, but the French fashion house did not charge the model for it. Nor did Vera Wang accept any payment for the design that Melania wore at the invitation, since she could barely walk in her first dress.
The ceremony was held at Bethesda by-the-Sea Episcopal Church in Palm Beach and the reception took place at Mar-a-Lago, the Trump residence in Florida. Up to 350 guests attended the wedding of the year. Among them, the Clintons, Heidi Klum, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Shaquille O'Neal, Anna Wintour or Billy Joel. There was only one bridesmaid, Ines, Melania's sister, also dressed as Vera Wang.
Attendees sampled a menu that included lobster salad with champagne vinaigrette, followed by veal as the main course. The multi-tiered wedding cake was covered in three thousand sugar flowers and its creator, Cedric Barbaret, took two months to design and make.
And they lived happily...
Six months after her wedding, the predictor smiled at Melania: she was pregnant. Then, as a source revealed to "Vanity Fair USA," everything changed. "She was 35 years old, she was in 'time out,' Trump only agreed to have a child if she got her figure back soon." At that time, the businessman admitted to presenter Howard Stern that his wife "was no longer the kitten he had known seven years before."
Her marriage has made rivers of ink run, more since Donald Trump is president of the United States. Melania's long faces, her refusal to move to the White House for the first few months in favor of her son, Barron, the fact that they do not share a bedroom in the presidential mansion, Trump's infidelities... There are many facts that would make shake any couple. But not to them.
"They don't spend much time together, there are times when they don't even know where the other is. But it is an agreement that works for them, "says Michael Wolff in" Fire and Fury ". “Their marriage is not just a facade. He admires her as a 'trophy woman', without irony, and often compliments her in front of others. And she has found the key to be happy being the wife of Donald Trump.
