Meet the ex-model and wannabe First Lady accused of ripping off Michelle Obama’s speech
The 46-year-old model grew up in a tower block, has posed nude and speaks five languages
IT'S NORMALLY her husband making headlines, but Melania Trump hit the front pages today after allegedly plagiarising a speech.
The 46-year-old supermodel was accused of rehashing a talk that Michelle Obama made in 2008 when she took to the podium at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio.
While the Trump camp has fiercely denied the claims and called the whole thing “really absurd”, the incident has thrust Melania into the spotlight.
So, who is the glamazon usually found doting by the side of her billionaire partner, and US presidential hopeful, Donald?
Melania’s beginnings were extremely humble and a world away from the lavish New York lifestyle she enjoys now.
She grew up in a modest apartment in a concrete housing block in Sevinca, Solvenia, with her dad Viktor Knavs, a car dealership manager, and mum Amalija, a patternmaker.
After being scouted as a model, Melania decided to drop out of school and at 18 she signed to an agency in Milan.
Melania was the runner-up in a ‘Look of the Year’ magazine competition and went on to work for fashion houses across Italy and France before relocating to America.
In 1996 she met Donald Trump at a fashion week party - he was still married to his second wife Marla Maples at the time but the pair were living separately.
While in the Big Apple, Melania’s modelling career rocketed and she posed for a number of high-profile glossies including Harper’s Bazaar, Vanity Fair, Vogue and In Style Weddings.
She posed in her bikini for the 2000 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue and stripped off to star in GQ.
If Melania becomes the First Lady she will be the first woman to do so who has posed naked in a magazine.
GQ editor Dylan Jones said: “We pushed the envelope a little. [It's] not exactly the kind of thing we could have asked anyone else to do – and we were surprised she said yes."
Melania and Donald got engaged in 2004 and they walked up the aisle in January 2005.
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The brunette strutted down the aisle in Palm Beach, Florida, in a £150,000 gown by John Galliano.
Celebrity guests included Heidi Klum, P Diddy, Simon Cowell and Hilary Clinton.
A year later, Melania gave birth to the couple’s first and only child together, son Barron William Trump.
While her husband courts controversy with his views, Melania is described as friendly and approachable.
Shoe designer Manolo Blahnik called her as a “true beauty” while gossip columnist Liz Smith says she’s a “very, very nice person”.
Melania’s hairdresser once said she is “incapable of being mean”.
When she’s not at her husband’s side, Melania runs a jewellery line, which is sold on QVC, and a caviar skincare line.
She is also speaks five languages - Slovenian, English, French, Serbian and German.
Melania has supported Donald’s US campaign bid from the start saying in 2015: “I encouraged him because I know what he will do and what he can do for America.
“He loves the American people and he wants to help them.”
She also said if she becomes First Lady she’ll be “very traditional” like “Betty Ford or Jackie Kennedy”.