True love forgoes several dissimilarities, for it is believed to stand as the epitome of perfection. One such example is our 47th president, Donald Trump, and his wife, First Lady Melania Trump. The couple shares a 24-year age gap in their partnership and has been together for nearly two decades. Before we discuss the First Lady’s take on the significant age gap between the pair, let’s delve into how the two met.
Back in 1998, at 53, Donald Trump was separated from his second wife, Marla Maples, with whom he has a daughter, and Slovenian-born model Melania Knauss (her maiden name) was present at a New York party where the two first saw each other. It was an awkward meeting, as President Trump was at the party with a date. Upon asking for her number, Melania hesitated and instead asked for his number. Mesmerized by his energy, the former model later spoke to Trump, and the two began dating.
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Despite a brief split, the couple got engaged in 2004 and married at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in 2005. The duo welcomed their son, Barron Trump, in 2006. The young man, who is about to turn 19 in 2025, has been grabbing the spotlight following his father’s highly publicized inaugural ceremony. Coming to the massive age gap between the two—which was the least of their concerns—Melania opened up about it recently following Trump’s inauguration ceremony on January 20, 2025.
As per the outlet Tyla, this came after a clip began circulating on social media of an interview with Melania, conducted just a year after she met the man who would become her future partner. The interview in question, which aired back in 1999 when she was 29 years old, featured Melania—then known as Melania Knauss—explaining that she “pictured” herself as the First Lady.
“You picture yourself as the First Lady?” ABC News correspondent Don Dahler questioned her, to which she replied, “Yes, I will be very traditional, like Jackie Kennedy. I will support him. I will do a lot of social obligations.” Dahler then asked, “If you did become First Lady, it probably wouldn’t be ethical for you to give commercial endorsements to products, so your modeling career might be over at that moment. What would you think about that?”
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Later in the same interview, Melania also said that she would be okay giving up modeling after being married. “I will stand by my man”, Melania declared while also hinting that she would be willing to give up her modeling career. When the interviewer questioned whether people believed she chose to be with Donald Trump because he was rich, she replied, “You know, the people, they don’t know me. People who talk like this, they don’t know me,”
Melania explained. “You can’t sleep or hug or talk with beautiful things—with a beautiful apartment, beautiful plane, beautiful cars, beautiful houses. You can’t do that. You could feel very empty.” Despite being uncomfortable with the media back in the day, two decades later The First Lady has not only cemented her image as a powerful and influential figure but also managed to keep cordial relationships with Donald Trump’s wives and children from his previous marriages.
