Donald and Melania Trump: Behind the scenes of their cold and distant marriage
Do Donald Trump and Melania Trump love each other? Hard to say. A long investigation by the American edition of Vanity Fair seems to indicate the contrary.
Everything had started well: Melania Knavs, an aspiring model living in New York, caught the attention of a certain Donald Trump during a party organized in the Kit Kat Club in Times Square. Even if he came accompanied, the businessman takes advantage of the absence of his companion for an evening to approach Melania. He asks for her number, it is finally she who takes his.
They start dating, with Melania assuring her friends that it's not the money that draws her to him: she believes that Donald is "a real dude". They marry seven years later. "She doesn't make waves, she only talks when asked. She's very sweet," Lisa Bytner, Trump Model Management's PR manager, told Vanity Fair.
35 years, the "use-by date of a woman" according to Trump
In this long investigation of Vanity Fair US signed Eugenia Peretz, we learn how their relationship has gradually deteriorated. It seems that it was Melania Trump's pregnancy that changed everything. She was then 35 years old, "the expiry date of a woman" according to Donald Trump.
"A guest at one of the Trump homes at the end of Melania's pregnancy remembers Donald telling him that he accepted this baby on the condition that Melania return to her old body," the inquest said. “She promised that everything would be back to normal”, continues this source. "There was no 'How are you feeling?', no opening doors so she wouldn't fall out. Just 'you wanted it'." Obviously, this version of the facts is firmly denied on the side of the Trumps.
Forced to put up with degrading comments about her physique (Trump, for example, explained to Howard Stern that if his wife was the victim of a serious car accident, he would stay with her only if her breasts were intact), Melania Trump would nevertheless be "perfectly aware of the man she married". Accused by many women (including journalist Natasha Stoynoff) of sexual assault when he was already married, Melania Trump would have only one philosophy: "Live and let live", tells his friend Lisa Bytner to Vanity Fair.
A strained relationship with Ivanka Trump
But when a video dating from 2005 is published, in which Donald Trump makes sexist and degrading remarks about women, Melania Trump cracks. She would consider leaving him. Especially since she “never wanted, nor had any interest” in her husband exercising the function of American president.
This would no doubt explain his - very noticeable - lack of investment in activities generally reserved for the wives of the president. “A First Lady generally comes with partnerships, explains a source to the American monthly. You come with a team. Ivanka Trump, eldest daughter of Donald Trump, was therefore almost forced to position herself to take over the place that Melania does not want. Inevitably, tensions have thus emerged between the two women. "Two fashion and media sources say they've observed a coldness between them," Vanity Fair said.
