Melania Trump has lived a very interesting life. She started out as a model in her home country of Slovenia, but after moving to New York to seek work, her life a another turn.
Meeting Donald Trump meant leaving the apartment she shared with her model friends for a huge mansion inside Trump Tower where she and Donald started their own family.
It’s fair to say that Melania Trump hasn’t been plagued by any financial issues over the past number of years, with her husband being one of the richest real estate moguls in the world.
But just how much money does she really have? Here’s all you need to know!
We’ll start way back at the beginning, more specifically 1987, when Melania Trump came into contact with the modeling business for the first time. She dropped out of her studies at the University of Ljubljana after only a year, and instead decided to pursue her dream of being a model. She first hired a photographer to put together a portfolio for her.
A year later, at the age of 18, she signed with a modeling agency in Milan. She spent a couple of years doing modeling work in both Milan and Paris, and she was doing very well.
At this point, Melania wanted to advance in her career. She then came into contact with wealthy Italian businessman Paolo Zampolli, who set her up with a modeling contract, as well as a work visa for her to travel to the US.
“I came here for my career, and I did so well, I moved here,” Melania told Harper’s Bazaar. “It never crossed my mind to stay here without papers. That is just the person you are. You follow the rules. You follow the law. Every few months you need to fly back to Europe and stamp your visa.
“After a few visas, I applied for a green card and got it in 2001. After the green card, I applied for citizenship. And it was a long process.”
After moving to the US, Melania had the world at her feet. Even though she was considered “old” for a model – at 26 years of age – she used it to her advantage and worked for tobacco companies. Her face was soon all over Times Square in a commercial for cigarettes. At the same time, she designed and sewed clothes for herself and her friends.
The aforesaid Paolo Zampolli realized that Melania wasn’t really into partying. However, it was at that kind of event where one met fashion photographers and other people in the business who could help one move forward in their career.
It was to one of these events at the Kit Kat Club during New York Fashion Week in 1998 that Zampolli had invited a good friend of his: a businessman named Donald Trump.
The wealthy real-estate mogul had just divorced his second wife Marla Maples and came to the event with a date. However, when he saw Melania, he wanted to get to know her instead.
“I went crazy. I was actually supposed to meet somebody else. There was this great supermodel sitting next to Melania,” Donald Trump told Larry King in 2005. “They said, ‘Look, there’s so and so.’ I said, ‘Forget about her. Who is the one on the left? And it was Melania.”
When they first met, though, Melania was not interested at all.
Since Trump was there with someone else and still asked her for her phone number, she admitted to being “turned off” and said that he was “totally out of the question,” her best friend Edit Molnar said.
“Melania said, ‘He’s here with a woman. I am absolutely not giving him my number,’” Molnar recalled. “She wouldn’t even consider it. Donald did all the work.”
“He wanted my number,” Melania Trump told Tatler. “But he was on a date, so of course I didn’t give it to him. I said, ‘I am not giving you my number; give me yours and I will call you.’ If I give him my number, I’m just one of the women he calls.”
Eventually, Donald and Melania started a relationship. The couple broke up several times, before patching things up and moving in together in 2001. Melania got her green card around the same time and was living at Trump’s penthouse in the Trump Tower on Manhattan.
Three years later, the couple got married in Florida. In 2006, they welcomed their son, Barron Trump.
Melania was the one closest to Barron as he grew up. Donald worked a lot and explained to Larry King in 2005 that he was a fairly hands-off parent.
“I’m not going to be doing the diapers,” Trump said. “I’m not going to be making the food, I may never even see the kids.”
At the same time, Melania made sure that Barron and his dad got their father-son time as well.
At the time, Donald had made a fortune in real estate. He became a billionaire, and as a result, it’s fair to say that Melania didn’t need to work if she didn’t want to.