She at first … Her father was described as a “larger-than-life personality” by the Times. Maybe Melania hadn’t wanted any of this a year ago—hadn’t wanted her husband to run, hadn’t wanted all the prying scrutiny, hadn’t wanted to become a politician’s wife. One relative told MailOnline: ‘He had connections. “He was never under any investigation, he was never in trouble,” she snaps. “It was completely different than it is now,” Melania Trump tells me, recalling those bygone days of sanity, speaking in her now famous accent, a kind of dreamy Transylvanian. ŽELI IH UPOZNATI OGLASIO SE ‘TAJNI’ POLUBRAT MELANIJE TRUMP: ‘Volio bih otići na piće ili pizzu s ocem i polusestrama’ 09:43 02.02.2017 Zvijezde. “I work very hard from early in the morning till late in the evening,” Donald told Larry King in 2005. It’s not a friendly industry to models of that age,” says Atanian, the former roommate. Denis has never met his father, nor his two sisters, Ines and Melania. She makes meaningful eye contact and emphatically repeats affirmative, folksy banalities—she “has a thick skin,” she takes things “day by day,” she follows the news “from A to Z”—until the interviewer either is transported into a supra-verbal understanding or decides it’s pointless to press for specifics. “It was a frustrating age for models, the late 20s. Seinen Lebensunterhalt verdient der 50-Jährige als Verkäufer in einem Baumarkt. The town sits in a forest valley, strung along the banks of the river Sava overlooked by an imposing 12th century castle. After a shoot or a catwalk, she went home, not out. 21. “There is a peace in her,” one old friend from Slovenia tells me. Melania’s mother, Amalija Ulčnik, worked developing patterns at a factory that manufactured children’s clothing. There was no response. Wenig später heiratete Knavs Melanias Mutter Amalija. “I didn’t have shoes for her because she had very big feet,” Jerko says of Melania, who wore the equivalent of a size 9 shoe. According to GQ, however, Viktor also had a son from a previous relationship, Denis Cigelnjak, meaning Melania has both a sister and a half-brother — although Cigelnjak … “She was always very fancy.” Amalija spent evenings after work sewing clothing for herself and her two daughters, Ines and Melania. Who are Ines Knauss and Denis Cigelnjak? He treats everyone equal.”. (Getty), A general view of Sevnica train station on November 29, 2016 in Sevnica, Slovenia. He in a tux; she in a $100,000 Dior dress that laborers’ hands had toiled upon for a legendary 550 hours, affixing 1,500 crystals—jewels fit for private citizens like them. I myself am similar to my husband. The family’s last name is sometimes written as Knauss. “She didn’t go out to dance clubs; she’d go to Cipriani for dinner at ten and be home by one,” Atanian recalls. Anders als Melania, lebt der gebürtige Slowene immer noch in der Nähe des kleinen Provinzstädtchen Sevnica, dem Geburtsort der First Lady in spe. In contrast to the privations that so many suffered in Communist times, the Knavses lived well. Melania also made her own jewelry. Her first home was a small first-floor flat in a towering apartment block in Sevnica close to the border with Croatia. BAD THINGS HAPPENED', Was this the moment Trump heard he’d lost? Reporter Julia Ioffe detailed the well-worn narrative of Trump’s modeling career, which took her from her native Slovenia to Manhattan, where she met Donald Trump. “When they went to our wedding, we were private citizens,” Melania reminds me. Viktor, a member of the communist party, also worked as a chauffeur for a local party official. He could see she had a future in front of the camera. Michelle Obama, a Princeton graduate and legal hotshot who was once her husband’s law-school-era mentor, has been mainly confined to dealing with soft issues: childhood obesity, planting vegetables. Would Donald stay with her? She once said she would be “traditional,” like Jackie Kennedy, and on the question of what causes she might support, she has noted she is already involved in “many, many charities.” She elaborated: “Many different charities involving children, involving many different diseases.”. Uhr. (Facebook). They reportedly have a half-brother, Denis Cigelnjak, who told GQ that he'd never met Viktor, the father he shares with Melania and Ines, or the half-sisters themselves. Donald’s first wife, Ivana, may have wanted Trump to be president, but Melania, his third, was never hot on the idea. He has an eight year old daughter, Mimi. They grew up in totally different environments, but they have the same values, they have the same tradition. As for the advice she gives her husband, Trump said that “nobody will ever know” her exact words of wisdom. I don’t have nothing to hide.”. She had met Viktor Knavs in 1966 while he was the chauffeur for a nearby town’s mayor,” according to GQ. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. Staying in her tiny new country of 2 million would mean the end of her modeling career. Barron was born March 20, 2006. She was reserved and tense but followed Jerko’s instructions and quickly figured out how to pose. ‘When was the last time she came to Slovenia? She has a half-brother When GQ asked Trump about the existence of a half-brother, Denis Cigelnjak, she said she didn't know about him. Sixteen years ago, when Donald Trump was considering a run for president, The New York Times asked his then-girlfriend what kind of first lady she would be. Play it now. That’s the mother’s duty. „Ich würde gerne mit meinem Vater und meinen beiden Schwestern Melania und Ines etwas trinken oder Pizza essen gehen“, so der 50-Jährige. EKSKLUZIVAN REPORT PREBOLJELA SAM KORONU, A HRVATSKA ME ZABORAVILA: … ‘I’m for Donald Trump because Donald Trump says what wants to do.’. “She’d be great at picking out the china patterns; she’d be a classic First Lady,” says stylist Phillip Bloch, who has worked with both of the Trumps and attended fashion shows with Melania. She didn’t want to waste time partying,” Jerko remembers. Denis Cigelnjak's great uncles and aunts: Denis Cigelnjak's great uncle was Anton Knavs Denis Cigelnjak's great aunt was Franciska Knavs Denis Cigelnjak's great uncle was Franc Knavs Denis Cigelnjak's great aunt was Amalija Knavs Denis Cigelnjak's great aunt was Marija Knavs Denis Cigelnjak's great aunt is Julijana Knavs Denis Cigelnjak's great aunt is Kristina Knavs She’s rich, but not a socialite; she prefers family to the It set and retires early after events. “I didn’t know much about Donald Trump,” she says of being introduced. In that era, reported The New York Times, people sometimes joined the Communist Party out of “career ambitions” as much as ideology. CANDACE OWENS: Why does a young black woman like me back The Donald? Zampolli’s agency paid Melania’s share of the rent as part of their contract. The existence of Melania’s half brother has never been reported, and although he had never spoken to … “When we discussed about it, I said he really needs to make sure he knows he really wants to do it, because life changes,” Melania says. Powered by. Denis is an electrician. Maybe she’s made for Washington after all. There she was, relaxing at “#home #NYC” on a Thursday night, in a room that looked like a fevered baroque dream. Trump initially denied Cigelnjak’s account to GQ, but after she was shown the documents said that she hadn’t understood the question. Those who know Melania say the Jackie template isn’t a bad one for her to aspire to. Amalija also had a fondness of “western fashion magazines,” the magazine reports. “Trump reminds me of Viktor,” Viktor’s friend and neighbor Tomaž Jeraj tells me. There was Melania in a white robe, working with her “glam team” of stylists, perched on a gilded throne, overlooking Central Park. Although she appears very protective of her son, Melania has spoken about him in interviews. Denis Cigelnjak, 51, admitted he was in shock because he had not expected his billionaire brother-in-law’s sensational victory. During Melania’s childhood, Melania’s mother “worked developing patterns at a factory that manufactured children’s clothing. Mr Cigelnjak - who is the son of Melania's father Viktor Knavs - has previously said he has never met Melania, her sister Ines Knavs or their father Viktor but would like to get to know them after the election. @nytimes What is driving @realDonaldTrump love of Russia? “The images are worth a thousand words,” the caption read, though Trump’s tweet itself was really communicating only four: “My wife is hotter.”. They were Italians, playboys. When he first met Melania—at a party during New York Fashion Week in the fall of 1998—Donald Trump was 52. The Times reported that Amalija would sew her daughters’ clothes and made sure they were always “dressed to impress.”. Melania Trump's family includes her parents and sister. Here’s Why. “I think she needed a strong man, a father figure.”. Getty In one of her last posts—right before somebody deemed it advisable to slam shut this opulent little window on her life—she snapped a parting selfie in a gold-mirrored bathroom. Melania Trump, the United States’ potential future First Lady, has been notably silent throughout her husband’s presidential campaign. According to CBS News, Melania has a half brother named Denis Cigelnjak, the product of her father’s relationship with another woman. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Though he argued that the child wasn’t his, a court-ordered blood test proved he was. Viktor denied Denis was his son. von He’s telling the truth. The young aspiring model's father, Viktor Knavs, sold car parts. Once upon a time, a man could marry his Slovenian sweetheart, invite Bill and Hillary Clinton to the lavish wedding, and only the society pages would bother with it. Denis Cigelnjak, 50, has never met is father, Viktor Knavs, or his half-sister Melania Trump - or her husband - but he would love to get to know them once the presidential campaign is over. So is my dad; he is a family man, he has tradition, he was hardworking. “School was the most important thing for her.” But a week later, she arrived, hair in a teenybopper ponytail, with a bushel of her own clothes: leggings, leotards, high-waisted acid-washed jeans, and a sleeveless sweater that looked like a wicker basket. “We have a clean past. The existence of Melania’s half brother has never been reported, and although he had never spoken to the media, he told me his story and then gave me permission to retrieve the relevant court documents from the Slovenian archives. But things change quickly—which is perhaps the enduring fact of Melania Trump’s entire improbable life—and when your husband works up a plan to make America great again, the very same Clintons you once smiled with on your wedding day can now become your family’s mortal enemies. Donald Trump has four other children with his first and second wives, Ivana Trump and Marla Maples. Trump's father, Viktor, was a car parts salesman while her mother, Amalija, a renowned local beauty, worked in a textile factory. “They had more than the others,” remembers Melania’s childhood friend Mirjana Jelančič. ), Jelančič remembers Melania’s father, Viktor, spending every Saturday lovingly washing his antique Mercedes, another rarity. So is my dad; he is a family man, he has tradition, he was hardworking. To have a shot at something bigger, at a real future in modeling, she had to move. “If I say, ‘I need an hour, I’m going to take a bath,’ or I’m having a massage, he doesn’t have nothing against it. Here she was, head to toe in white, posing on the Trump jet. Either she set Donald straight—he has insisted that his fidelity to Melania is absolute—or she made her peace with the immutable character of The Donald, telling every interviewer who asks that she doesn’t seek to change him. It’s been a long time since a boy lived in the White House. Her father, car salesman Viktor Knavs, had a relationship with Mr Cigelnjak's mother Marija five years before she was born, Triumph: Donald Trump kisses wife Melania after his incredible victory over Hillary Clinton. From award-winning writing and photography to binge-ready videos to electric live events, GQ meets millions of modern men where they live, creating the moments that create conversations. “It’s about all that power and protection,” one of Melania’s old friends from Ljubljana tells me. The same can be said for his more controversial positions, like his general disdain for immigrants, even though his wife became an American only in 2006. It wasn’t a stylistic choice. Viktor Knavs and Amalija Knavs, the parents of US First Lady Melania Trump. She said things were very different in Europe, that she had been more successful.” Melania was having a hard time supporting herself, worried that her best years were behind her. “It tells you a lot from the man what kind of number he gives you. She smiled, tautly, like a sphinx and beheld the throng before her. He could always get little luxuries or essentials like car parts that other people could not get their hands on.’. He has business in his veins.” It’s a sentiment unanimous in Sevnica, where Viktor and Amalija still own their house and visit two or three times a year. Lisa Nordholt As Donald tops... How Melania Trump left her bleak Communist upbringing... Masked men jump man as he enters home in Brighton, Endangered wild Siberian Tiger strolls in Chinese forest farm, CCTV captures suspect in connection with stabbing of two schoolgirls, Phoenix protesters chant 'stop the illegal vote', Trump ignores question if he is 'a sore loser' over 2020 election, Health authorities discover mutated coronavirus strain in minks, Police show up at Brighton home after horrifying incident, Boris Johnson takes coronavirus test during visit to Leicester, Joe Biden heads out with granddaughter Finnegan during campaign trail, Crowds gather in Times Square to celebrate Biden win, Biden: 'The numbers tell us a clear story, we're going to win', Trump without evidence claims voter fraud is making him lose, Nick Fagge In Hrastnik, Slovenia, For Mailonline. “He likes quality,” says Melania. But unlike her husband, Melania is reserved, polite, and steady, say those close to her. And you can think, as Melania Trump says she does, that it’s no huge deal, really. Two years later, she met her future husband at a party in Manhattan where the newly separated Donald Trump asked the model, 24 years his junior, for her telephone number. Unimpressed with merely catching the eye of the famous billionaire, Melania was studying the situation as if testing a coin with her teeth. They acquired the house through the housing plan of the now liquidated Jutranca textile company where they worked. According to a lengthy profile on Melania in GQ, Melania Trump’s father met her mother when he was a chauffeur to the town mayor. I will age gracefully, as my mom does.”, In New York, Melania lived a quiet, homebound life, taking assiduous care of her body: walks with ankle weights, seven pieces of fruit every day, diligently moisturizing her skin. A court ordered blood test proved Denis is his son. A pair of ordinary people, really, uniting in matrimony in the presence of Rudy Giuliani and Kelly Ripa, as Billy Joel serenaded the couple and guests slurped caviar and Cristal in the shadow of a five-foot-tall Grand Marnier wedding cake. “She went away for a two-week vacation, then came back, and was more…buxom,” Atanian says, groping for the right but least offensive word. “She struck me as a lovely person, and extremely creative.”. He wouldn’t mind meeting his half sisters, Ines and Melania, who, he’s fairly certain, don’t even know he exists. um Denis Cigelnjak, 51, admitted he was in shock because he had not expected his billionaire brother-in-law’s sensational victory. “The breasts are okay,” Stern replied. “He’s a salesman. Born in Slovenia, Melania Trump was raised in the town of Sevnica, by her father, a car salesman, and her mother, a pattern maker at a textile factory. “Because that’s between me and my husband.”, The approach is in keeping with her view of her wifely functions. The family struck a worldly image, too, vacationing in France, Italy, and Germany. He’s tough. “She cut the line behind her,” says the friend from Ljubljana. “He is the strong one in the relationship. He’s smart. Vor allem Melania Trump setzte in den vergangenen Monaten alles daran, sich medienwirksam in Szene zu setzen. He had a great heart. Melania Trump sat down for an exclusive interview on ABC News on October 12, 2018. I’ll Never Let Go, Jack! “She’s never taken advantage of that situation, okay, as many women would have, frankly,” he has said. Melania is as fastidious a wife as she is a mother, which Donald appreciates. He follows the market.”, Far from objecting to the comparison that’s made between her husband and her father, Melania agrees they’re a lot alike. Erhalte sofort alle Neuigkeiten zu deinen Stars, indem du ihnen folgst! She also came back from business trips with Western fashion magazines, which Melania’s friends watched her flip through constantly. “The secret of why he’s with her,” she explains, “is her traditional values and the importance of family to her.” In other words, that bearskin-rug photo is a red herring: Melania is the ideal wife for the conservative base. It was Zampolli, again, who rescued her in 1998—with that invitation to the party at the Kit Kat Club, unwittingly putting her on a charmed trajectory toward a certain playboy’s phone number and, who knows, maybe even the White House. He gave me all of his numbers.”, Perhaps Trump saw something worth admiring in Melania’s willingness to walk away from the deal. A court ordered blood test proved Denis is his son. He was a communist who also worked as a chauffeur. Perhaps somewhere out on the campaign trail? The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. But the piece goes on to report what was apparently a well-kept family secret about Melania Trump’s half-brother, Denis Cigelnjak. Ameriški bogataš Donald Trump nadaljuje svoj zmagoviti pohod v družbi družinskih članov, kjer mu v prvi vrsti ob strani stoji njegova žena Melania Trump, ki je slovenskega rodu. “She stays in her lane,” Bloch says. Melania had signed up for a life of conspicuous conspicuousness, one she dutifully chronicled on Instagram and Twitter up until about a year ago, when her social-media accounts—unlike those of her husband—went silent with Trump’s entrance into the race. “She aired frustration over the work issue,” Atanian recalls. Melania scoffs when I ask if she had had a breast augmentation. I didn’t do anything. (“Pictures tell for itself,” Melania says firmly when I ask her about Atanian’s characterization of this supposed tough patch. Melania's parents, Viktor Knavs and Amalija Knavs, have become familiar faces among the travels of the first family and around the nation's capital. Back then, Slovenia was still part of Communist-run Yugoslavia. “She’s smart for the things she’s interested in, like jewelry. ', Pride: Nena, 23, pictured left, a student, said: ‘I am very proud that Melania Trump has got to the White House because she is Slovenian. “Nobody knows and nobody will ever know,” she says of the advice she provides him. But in interviews, Melania doesn’t shy away from her Slovenian life; she’s not embarrassed by it. “She was sure that there was nothing for her in Slovenia,” says the friend from Ljubljana. It’s all me. Mr Cigelnjak told Slovenia’s Planet.si: 'My mother, my aunts and uncles gave me everything. Er wünscht sich nichts sehnlicher, als den Rest seiner Familie endlich einmal zu treffen. It’s easy to think America has changed a lot since Hillary Rodham Clinton was chastised in the early ’90s for her ambition as First Lady—refusing to sit at home and make cookies. He’s a great communicator. Ines Knauss, First Lady Melania Trump’s sister. “Meet Melania Trump. “It was a beautiful childhood.” Her son speaks Slovenian fluently—he uses it to speak with his grandparents, who have immigrated to New York and live near them in Trump Tower—but for Melania, Slovenia represents a relatively short and distant period of her past that she quickly outgrew. Denis has said he hopes one day the family can meet. Periodically, Denis would hear stories about his father, but he said he was afraid to initiate contact and disturb the Knavs family. Later, after I’d sent her documents from the Slovenian court, she wrote to me claiming she hadn’t understood what I’d asked, explaining, “I’ve known about this for years.” She added: “My father is a private individual. . ', Natasha, 53, a restaurateur, told MailOnline: ‘I am very happy for a Slovenian to be in the White House. Mr Knavs, a former car salesman, had a relationship Mr Cigelnjak's mother Marija before he met Malania’s mother Amalija Ulcnik. A son was born in May 1965, and three months later, Marija sued Viktor for child support. ', Home: This modest apartment block in Hrastnik, Slovenia, is where Melania's brother lives. But the piece goes on to report what was apparently a well-kept family secret about Melania Trump’s half-brother, Denis Cigelnjak. Melania was born four years later in Sevnica, which GQ called a “small railroad town where she was born Melanija Knavs in 1970, is about an hour’s drive from the Slovenian capital.”, #melaniaTrump Very cool family .. good looking grand parents … pic.twitter.com/sNIMgmIE0R, — Shawn 888 (@888_shawn) December 23, 2016, According to Univision, “Melania’s parents lived in a two-room apartment in Sevnica, a town of about 5,000 residents. While Melania has never brought husband Donald to visit her home town, residents of Sevnica say they are proud that a Slovenian – and her husband – are now set to live in the White House. They e-mailed Melania’s representatives, they wrote to her on Facebook. Since 1957, GQ has inspired men to look sharper and live smarter with its unparalleled coverage of style, culture, and beyond. Of course, Melania had the foresight to imagine that politics would bring chaos. He didn’t seek attention and says he wants nothing from his father or the Trumps. Here's what you should know about them. Melania and her mother were photographed together in Manhattan. GQ may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. “They’re both very smart and very capable. She began by reading from the remarks waiting for her at the podium, a list she’d compiled of her husband’s attributes. “Or, you could support Ted Cruz on Tuesday.”, Trump shot back in a cryptic, menacing message that he would “spill the beans” on Heidi Cruz and then re-tweeted two photos, side by side: one, a mid-sentence Heidi, looking like a gargoyle; another, a bronzed, blue-eyed Melania, looking like a fox. Back in Slovenia, reports GQ, Amalija was known as pretty and “always very fancy.”. She never married or had more children, and Denis says he has no memory of ever meeting his father. She has forgotten us.’. They dated for a while, and in September 1964, she told Viktor she was pregnant. Doch das scheinbar perfekte Bild bekommt so langsam Risse: Während die First Lady seit Jahren auf der Sonnenseite des Lebens steht, kann ihr völlig unbekannter Halbbruder Denis Cigelnjak (50) vom Luxus-Leben der Extraklasse nur träumen. (The court record indicates that Viktor filed his appeal late—and lied brazenly and unconvincingly about the nature of the delay.). She wanted more.” Recalls another friend from those days, “We were all 20, but she was much more mature.”, By 1992—the year Melania won second place in a Slovenian Look of the Year modeling contest—she seemed to have outgrown not just Ljubljana but all of newly independent Slovenia. (Melania has said the key to the success of her marriage is separate bathrooms.) According to CBS News, Melania has a half brother named Denis Cigelnjak, the product of her father’s relationship with another woman. She refused, and instead asked Trump for his contact information. “If I give him my number, I’m just one of the women he calls,” she remembers. Viktor has never acknowledged his son, Denis Cigelnjak, who is now 50. “The other models had smaller feet.” (You know what they say in Slovenia about people with big feet? To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. 11:45 “I didn’t make any changes,” she says. Melania Trump’s family includes parents Vikor and Amalija Knavs, two siblings (one she doesn’t really talk about), and, of course, son Barron Trump. “When asked, she gives her opinion, but otherwise she stays out of it.”. “Because that’s important.” There are other pluses. I didn’t follow Donald Trump and what kind of life he had.”. “They’re both hardworking,” she told GQ. Melania was born in the sleepy industrial town of Sevnica in Slovenia in 1970 when communism still ruled in eastern Europe and Slovenia was part of dictator Marshal Tito’s Yugoslavia, a Soviet satellite state. This, Viktor said, was because the child was not his. Denis is an electrician. It was a prestigious address and provided the girls a place to stay in the capital so that they could attend design school—another luxury. “She was very pretty,” says Tomšič, who now runs a local hospital to which Melania donated $25,000 after marrying Donald. “She was going to castings every day and not succeeding every day. GQ Editor-in-Chief Jim Nelson on the legacy of our soon-to-be-former POTUS, Donald Trump Weighs on Medical Marijuana, Hillary Clinton, and Man Buns, Obama Is One of the Greatest Presidents of All Time. Melania Trump has a half brother living in Hrastnik, Slovenia. But she was unsatisfied with his lack of seriousness. She was really happy with those two, three, four people she was with. He was brash and brassy, fabulously wealthy, the stuff of New York legend. He’s very supportive in that way.” She lets him have his space; she’s not “needy” or “nagging,” as she tells me. Donald does his part to make things work, too. Dressed in a blue jacket, black workmen's trousers and red and black trail shoes Mr Cigelnjak skipped up the steps of the seven storey apartment block shortly after Republican Trump was confirmed as the new US President. Melania,” he said. “Amalija spent evenings after work sewing clothing for herself and her two daughters,” and the family vacationed throughout Europe and painted their home in deep, “lush” colors, GQ reported.