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BEST OF FRENEMIES

Melania Trump’s ex-pal of ’15 years’ hits back at claims they ‘hardly knew each other’ saying ‘I was at your WEDDING’

THE ex-friend of Melania Trump who penned an explosive tell-all book has hit back at the first lady's claims that they "hardly knew each other".

Stephanie Winston Wolkoff claims she had a 15-year friendship with Melania - even attending her wedding to Donald Trump.

Melania Trump's ex-friend Stephanie Winston Wolkoff claimed that Trump asked her to 'attend her nuptials'
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Melania Trump's ex-friend Stephanie Winston Wolkoff claimed that Trump asked her to 'attend her nuptials'Credit: Getty Images - Getty
Stephanie Winston Wolkoff hit back at Melania Trump's statement that she 'hardly knew' her by claiming the first lady asked her to attend her wedding
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Stephanie Winston Wolkoff hit back at Melania Trump's statement that she 'hardly knew' her by claiming the first lady asked her to attend her weddingCredit: Getty Images - Getty

Wolkoff—whose book Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship with the First Lady painted an unbecoming image of the first lady—spoke on Saturday, two days after on the tell-all. 

“I find it puzzling that the First Lady of the United States asked someone she ‘hardly knew’ to attend her nuptials, join her for countless lunches, help plan the presidential inauguration, stay over at the White House and Mar-a-Lago, and act as her senior advisor,” Wolkoff said in a statement first obtained by .

Wolkoff added that she wrote the book “to share with the public my experience of working with Melania, our fifteen-year friendship, and her ultimate betrayal.”

"This portrait is not all flattering but it’s the truth and Americans deserve the truth about the occupants of the White House,” stated Wolkoff, who was an adviser to Trump. 

First Lady Melania Trump stated that Stephanie Winston Wolkoff 'secretly recorded our phone calls, releasing portions from me that were out of context'
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First Lady Melania Trump stated that Stephanie Winston Wolkoff 'secretly recorded our phone calls, releasing portions from me that were out of context'Credit: Getty Images - Getty
Stephanie Winston Wolkoff's tell-all book was published on September 1, 2020
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Stephanie Winston Wolkoff's tell-all book was published on September 1, 2020Credit: Amazon

In a posted on the White House’s website on Thursday, Trump said that the “former contractor who advised my office” was “a person who said she ‘made me’ even though she hardly knew me, and someone who clung to me after my husband won the Presidency.”

“This is a woman who secretly recorded our phone calls, releasing portions from me that were out of context, then wrote a book of idle gossip trying to distort my character,” Trump stated about Wolkoff. 

Trump continued that Wolkoff’s “memoir” included blaming her for her ailing health from a long ago accident and “for bad news coverage that she brought upon herself and others.” 

First Lady Melania Trump stated that Stephanie Winston Wolkoff 'clung to me after my husband won the Presidency'
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First Lady Melania Trump stated that Stephanie Winston Wolkoff 'clung to me after my husband won the Presidency'Credit: Getty Images - Getty
Stephanie Winston Wolkoff responded to Melania Trump by saying that the ''portrait is not all flattering but it’s the truth'
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Stephanie Winston Wolkoff responded to Melania Trump by saying that the ''portrait is not all flattering but it’s the truth'Credit: Getty Images - Getty

The first lady dismissed the book as “an attempt to be relevant.” 

Wolkoff suffered a herniated spine and had two spinal cord fusion surgeries, reported in 2017. 

Wolkoff’s book, published last month, made claims about the first lady’s icy relationship with first daughter , her disdain for some of her official duties and her true beliefs about immigrant children who were separated from their parents at the border. 

President ’s Justice Department sued Wolkoff earlier this week, accusing her of breaking a non-disclosure agreement and failing to submit a draft to the government for review before publication. 

The lawsuit stated that Wolkoff had “access to significant confidential information related to the First Lady’s official duties as well as to more private aspects of her role in the First Family.”

Wolkoff was Melania Trump’s first hire, but stopped working with the White House in early 2018 after reports emerged that her company gained $26 million for helping to plan Donald Trump’s inauguration events. 

Stephanie Winston Wolkoff talks about her tell all book about friendship with Melania Trump
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