Alleged affairs, embarrassing publicity, and a husband accused of sexual assault — Melania Trump might enjoy a life of luxury, but it hasn't always been easy.
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00:00Alleged affairs, embarrassing publicity, and a husband accused of sexual assault.
00:06Melania Trump might enjoy a life of luxury, but it hasn't always been easy.
00:11Melania Trump was just 28 when she met future husband Donald Trump at a party during New York
00:16Fashion Week in 1998. 24 years her senior, Trump had a well-earned reputation as a ladies' man.
00:23He had already been married twice, divorcing wife Ivana after his affair with Marla Maples,
00:28who went on to become his second ex-wife. In fact, Trump was on a date with another woman
00:33when he asked for Melania's number. She declined, instead asking for his.
00:38Before long, they began dating. They weren't long into their relationship, however,
00:43when Melania decided to break things off. Matthew Atanian, her former roommate and
00:48photographer, told GQ,
00:50"[She had some trust issues with him at the beginning.
00:52She was telling me that she wouldn't have it, he was back to his old ways.
00:56She kept her apartment to have her own space because of this."
01:00But just a few months later, they got back together.
01:03It's no secret that prior to her marriage, Melania was a top model who wasn't approved
01:08when it came to nudity. She was regularly seen in magazines sporting lingerie and had no problem
01:14taking it all off for a steamy GQ photo shoot back in 2000. In 2016, when Donald Trump was
01:21campaigning for president, a false rumor spread that sex work was a part of Melania's modeling
01:26career. Slovenian magazine Suzy published a story that the modeling agency Melania worked
01:31for was actually a front for an elite escort agency for wealthy clients, and that she herself
01:37was a high-end escort. Britain's Daily Mail ran with the story in their profile on Melania,
01:42sharing all the salacious details while also concluding there was no truth to the rumor.
01:47That led her to sue the Daily Mail for libel, seeking $150 million in damages.
01:53The Daily Mail issued retractions and an apology to Melania.
01:56Slovensky novice newspaper publisher of Suzy issued a statement on its website insisting
02:02that the story never claimed that Melania Trump was an escort. She proceeded with her lawsuit and
02:07won. The damages, however, were nowhere near the $150 million she was asking for, but were
02:13reportedly in the $3 million range. In October 2016, a month before the
02:20presidential election, The Washington Post published a video and article that showed
02:24Trump bragging about being able to freely grope women because he's famous.
02:28When you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.
02:31Whatever you want.
02:31Grab them by the d----. I can do anything.
02:35Days after the infamous Access Hollywood tape leaked,
02:38a woman came forward with a shocking allegation.
02:41Writing for People magazine, journalist Natasha Stoynoff wrote about her experience
02:46interviewing Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in 2005.
02:50After greeting Melania Trump, who was pregnant with son Barron at the time,
02:54Stoynoff claimed Donald Trump brought her into a room and pulled the door closed. She wrote,
02:59I turned around, and within seconds he was pushing me against the wall and forcing his
03:03tongue down my throat. The attack stopped when a butler entered, informing Trump that his wife
03:08would be joining them in a moment to continue the interview. After the butler left them alone,
03:12she said that Trump told her,
03:14You know we're going to have an affair, don't you?
03:16While Trump claimed that what he said in the Access Hollywood tape was, quote,
03:20locker room talk, Stoynoff concluded by writing,
03:23But it wasn't just talk in my case. It was very much action.
03:26And just for the record, Mr. Trump, I did not consent.
03:30In the spring of 2024, Donald Trump was found guilty on 34 counts involving the
03:35so-called hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels to secure her silence
03:40about their alleged affair prior to the 2016 presidential election.
03:44When Daniels first went public with those allegations in 2018,
03:48the details proved particularly embarrassing for Melania Trump,
03:52given that the alleged tryst took place shortly after the birth of their son, Barron.
03:56Melania tried to dismiss the whole thing when
03:58she addressed the controversy during an interview with ABC News.
04:02It is not concern and focus of mine. I'm a mother and a first lady,
04:07and I have much more important things to think about.
04:10When Daniels then testified during the hush money case all those years later,
04:14Melania reportedly felt mortified all over again. A source told People magazine,
04:20She remains angry and doesn't want to hear the alleged hush money payment mentioned.
04:24A furious Melania is not a yeller or a screamer. She just disappears.
04:29The former president vehemently denied that he had sex with Daniels,
04:33dismissing the allegations via tweet as, quote,
04:36"...100% fabricated and made-up charges."
04:40Allegations of her husband's extramarital escapades weren't Melania's only calls
04:45for embarrassment in 2018. There was also then-President Donald Trump's interview
04:49with Fox & Friends when he was asked what he had given to the first lady for her recent birthday.
04:54I got a beautiful card. There's some beautiful flowers.
04:57He also offered an excuse for his thoughtlessness,
05:00claiming that his job as leader of the free world kept him far too preoccupied to be bothered.
05:05You know, I'm very busy to be running out looking for presents, okay?
05:09Stephanie Winston Wolkoff was one of Melania Trump's closest friends and confidants,
05:14until she was ousted from her role in the White House when a scandal erupted
05:17over claims she profited from extravagant spending at the inauguration.
05:21She told The New York Times in 2019,
05:24Was I fired? No. Did I personally receive $26 million or $1.6 million? No.
05:31Was I thrown under the bus? Yes.
05:34Wolkoff didn't just get mad, she got even. Her weapon? A recording device,
05:39secretly taping conversations that formed the bulk of her book, Melania and Me,
05:43which contained numerous revelations that Melania would have liked to remain secret.
05:47As The Guardian pointed out in its review,
05:50Wolkoff is no lightweight in the New York fashion scene, having produced the Met Gala,
05:54worked for Vogue's Anna Wintour, and served as a fashion director for New York Fashion Week.
05:59The first lady received even more negative press when Wolkoff played some of those recorded
06:03conversations on television, including one in which Melania lamented being criticized
06:07for her husband's actions and policies while focusing on planning Christmas at the White House.
06:12Who gives a f— about Christmas stuff and decoration, but I need to do it, right?
06:17While it's abundantly clear that Melania Trump is a doting mother to Barron,
06:21her relationships with her husband's kids from his first marriage appear to be a bit
06:25more complicated. That seems to be the case when it comes to her stepdaughter, Ivanka Trump.
06:30A 2017 Vanity Fair piece, for example, pointed to a frostiness between the two,
06:36while a source told People that it was no secret that Melania isn't close to the three older Trump
06:40children. In Stephanie Winston Wolkoff's Melania and Me, she detailed Melania's rivalry with Ivanka.
06:46In fact, Melania was reportedly furious about Ivanka's efforts to steal the spotlight during
06:51the 2016 inauguration. Wolkoff wrote,
06:55"...it was Donald's inauguration, not Ivanka's, but no one was brave enough to tell her that."
07:00Wolkoff also wrote about the first lady's efforts to derail Ivanka's plans,
07:04which were dubbed Operation Block Ivanka,
07:07intended to keep her away from the primo photo ops during the big day. Wolkoff wrote,
07:12Yes, Operation Block Ivanka was petty. Melania was in on this mission,
07:16but in our minds, Ivanka shouldn't have made herself the center of attention in her father's
07:20inauguration. Melania's chilly relationship with Ivanka reportedly fractured even further.
07:26In the 2024 book American Woman, The Transformation of the Modern First Lady,
07:30Melania contemptuously referred to Ivanka as the princess,
07:34and the two reportedly battled over media coverage.
07:37There have been rumors aplenty about the marriage of Donald and Melania Trump,
07:42bolstered by some chilly public interactions between the two. And let's not forget all
07:46those allegations of his infidelity. But when it comes to their marriage, what is the state
07:51of the union? In her unauthorized biography, Free Melania, CNN correspondent Kate Bennett
07:57claimed that the Trumps didn't share a bed, or even a bedroom, when they lived in the White House.
08:02The book alleged that the then-president slept in the primary bedroom in the White House residence,
08:06while his wife had her own bedroom on an entirely different floor, in a space that had hosted
08:11Marianne Robinson, mother of previous first lady Michelle Obama. Apparently,
08:16those sleeping arrangements weren't exclusive to the White House, but had carried over from
08:20Trump Tower. Karen McDougal, the Playboy playmate who claimed to have had a lengthy affair with the
08:2545th president, recalled Trump taking her on a tour of the penthouse and showing her Melania's
08:29private quarters, which were separate from his own. However, this doesn't necessarily
08:34mean that their marriage is on the rocks.
08:37By all accounts, they do have a connection. They do have a relationship."
08:42In his book Fire and Fury, author Michael Wolff claimed that Melania Trump's reaction
08:46to her husband winning the 2016 presidential election wasn't exactly a happy one. Wolff wrote,
08:52"[Melania was in tears, and not of joy.] She realized that, as first lady,
08:57the scrutiny placed on her marriage would escalate considerably. As a source told Us Weekly in 2018,
09:04she was not thrilled that, quote, all eyes are on her relationship with her husband.
09:08It's not an easy time for her."
09:10Meanwhile, another source claimed that life in the White House was sheer misery for her.
09:14The source told the outlet,
09:16"[She is very, very unhappy with her life. If she could,
09:19she would get away from Donald and just be with her son.]
09:22After Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election,
09:25they left the White House and retreated to Mar-a-Lago. Even though she would revert to
09:29being a private citizen once again, it was clear that the life she knew in New York City was long
09:34gone, replaced by her new reality in Florida. But would Trump's esteemed Florida estate become her
09:40refuge or her prison? Apparently, it's the former. A source told People,
09:45"[Melania is leading her own life and still feels happy being at Mar-a-Lago,
09:49surrounded by people who love her and who never talk about reality or bad things about her husband."
09:55By all accounts, Melania Trump has always been close to her parents,
09:59Victor and Amalia Knobbs. As Politico reported, prior to making the move to the White House,
10:04they lived with her and their grandson in the penthouse at Trump Tower and would often
10:08spend weekends with her at Mar-a-Lago or Donald Trump's golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey.
10:14In January 2024, Melania shared the tragic news via social media, writing,
10:19"[It is with deep sadness that I announce the passing of my beloved mother,
10:23Amalia. Amalia Knobbs was a strong woman who always carried herself with grace,
10:27warmth and dignity. She was entirely devoted to her husband, daughters, grandson and son-in-law.
10:33We will miss her beyond measure and continue to honor and love her legacy."
10:39In the years since leaving the White House and settling down in Mar-a-Lago,
10:42Donald Trump immediately began his quest to win another term as president,
10:46hitting the road for rallies and giving countless media interviews.
10:50He's the worst president in the history of our country, and she's the worst vice president."
10:55Melania has rarely appeared with him at these events, preferring to remain behind the scenes
10:59to focus on raising their teenage son. That focus on parenting is reportedly all-encompassing.
11:05A source told People magazine that Melania has little interest in cultivating friends,
11:10preferring to spend her time with family. The source stated,
11:13"[Melania's friends are her family members. Many Mar-a-Lago club members and others know
11:18and see Melania, but they aren't friends. They don't get together and gab or socialize.
11:23She has always surrounded herself with family. She is a doting mother to Barron and very
11:28protective of him. This is nothing new." That certainly sounds like a lonely life.
11:33Yet it's also been a way for Melania to insulate herself and Barron from her husband's myriad of
11:38legal troubles and multiple criminal indictments. The source went on,
11:42"[They live in a fairy-tale world and just deal with things as they come
11:45and seem to survive pretty well. They do what is possible
11:48to get past the problems without disrupting their lifestyle."
11:53The source added, "[Melania's friends are her family members. Many Mar-a-Lago club members
11:55and others know and see Melania, but they don't get together and socialize. This is nothing new."