Mirroring her stratospheric rise from hard-up fashion model to FLOTUS, Melania Trump's property journey from a basic apartment block in communist Yugoslavia to the opulence of Donald Trump's real estate empire including Mar-a-Lago and, of course, the White House has been absolutely extraordinary. As the former first lady enjoys a quieter life post-presidency, click or scroll through to chart her remarkable homes over the years.
Looking angelic here nestled in her pram not long after she'd arrived in the world, Melania Trump was born Melanija Knavs on 26 April 1970 in the city of Novo Mesto. Located back then in the far north of communist Yugoslavia, the future first lady's birthplace is now part of Slovenia and situated not far from the border with Croatia.
Novo Mesto is a picturesque city bisected by the Krka River. At the time of her birth, Melania's car-obsessed father Viktor was a mechanic and had a job chauffeuring around the mayor of the nearby town of Hrastnik. According to a profile in Town & Country magazine, her mother Amalija was working as a children's wear pattern-maker at a state-owned textile factory in Sevnica, around 16 miles northwest of Novo Mesto.
Melania's formative years were spent in Sevnica, a sleepy industrial town of around 5,000 people best known for its castle, traditional salami and for its factories producing underwear. Incidentally, Sevnica has named a sausage, cake and other treats in Melania's honour and even constructed a wooden statue of her in 2019. According to the BBC, the controversial artwork was torched by arsonists in 2020 and has since been replaced with a fireproof bronze version.
Melania's first ever home was at Naselje heroja Maroka 9, Sevnica 8290, Slovenia - a small one-bedroom apartment in this humble block in central Sevnica. At the time she shared the place with her parents and older sister, Ines, who was born in 1967.
Ines posted a childhood picture on her Instagram account showing Melania at her first birthday about to blow out the sole candle on her cake, which is decorated with nuts to form the letter M. Nicknamed 'Jackie Kennedy' thanks to her elegant style, mum Amalija was renowned for her deft dressmaking skills and always made sure the girls were beautifully attired.
Melania is pictured here at her second birthday party sitting on her nanny's lap. While most children in communist Yugoslavia attended kindergarten from an early age, Melania and her sister were cared for and educated by this kindly-looking lady until it was time for the girls to start school.
Around 1972, the family moved to a spacious three-bedroom apartment in another government-owned housing block a stone's throw away from their starter home. The building has since been repainted in cheery hues, but back then it was depressingly drab. Amalija compensated by painting the rooms in bright colours, with the kitchen a vibrant red and the living room a bold blue.
Despite its dowdiness, the block was considered a middle-class residence by communist standards and though she wore homemade clothes, Melania wasn't deprived as a child, particularly by her teenage years as the family acquired wealth. They had a colour TV, which was as rare in Yugoslavia at the time, went on beach holidays in Croatia in summer and ski trips to Italy and Austria during the winter, and father Viktor drove a Mercedes.
At the age of six, Melania was enrolled in Sevnica's Savo Kladnik Elementary School, conveniently located just five minutes by foot from the Knavs' apartment. Her childhood friend, Mirjana Jelancic, who went on to become the head of the school, sang Melania's praises to AP in 2016, describing her as “an excellent student, very organised, disciplined, with very decent manners.”
Melania is shown here in 1977 with Ines and Viktor, who intriguingly many people have likened to Donald Trump in both looks and personality. A dynamic, smartly dressed entrepreneur with a larger-than-life character, Viktor Knavs had managed to secure a lucrative job as a car and motorcycle salesman for a state-owned automaker, possibly thanks to his membership of the Communist Party, which he joined to get ahead and make connections rather than out of any devotion to the ideology.
Viktor eschewed the Communist Party's atheist beliefs, secretly baptising both his daughters in the Catholic faith and focusing on making money and acquiring nice things. Melania is said to have made her modelling debut at the age of five, walking at a show in Ljubljana for her mother's textile factory Jutranjka, and is pictured here second from the right at a Jutranjka fashion review in 1977.
In 1985, Melania finished elementary school with a B-grade average and followed her sister to the prestigious Secondary School of Design and Photography in Ljubljana, specialising in industrial design. While studying in the city, the girls lived in an apartment in this block on the northern outskirts, which their father had bought several years previously, quite the feat in a communist country. He would pop in and out regularly as he was based in the city, while Amalija tended to visit from Sevnica at weekends.
Melania studied hard at the school, which is housed in a converted Renaissance monastery, but did find time to model on the side and dance to Wham! In the Horse's Tail bar by Ljubljana's Triple Bridge, where she met her first boyfriend Peter Butoln in 1987. That same year, Melania was discovered at a fashion show by photographer Stane Jerko.
Impressed by her good looks and inner poise, Jerko treated Melania, shown here in her high school days, to her first photo shoot and passed on the images to a Slovenian cultural centre, which invited the young student to attend a part-time fashion course for models. Melania started on the course in the autumn of 1987, breaking up with Butoln around this time.
Melania graduated high school in the summer of 1989. While a modelling career was looking ever more promising, the academically able 19-year-old passed a tough entrance exam to study architecture at the University of Ljubljana. Her heart clearly wasn't in it though. During the course she jetted off to Rome where she won a contest to be the spokesmodel for a famous film studio. Needless to say, Melania failed the end of year exams and dropped out.
Meanwhile, communism had well and truly collapsed. Democratic elections were held in 1990 and the following year Slovenia became an independent country, breaking away from Yugoslavia following a brief war with thankfully few casualties. Melania's parents were able to buy their apartment, which they swiftly flipped for a tidy profit, and set about building their dream home in the upscale Ribniki neighbourhood, dubbed the Beverly Hills of Sevnica.
Contemporary in design with a flat roof, the two-storey home, which was eventually completed in 1995, stands in contrast to the more traditionally styled houses in the area. Melania would have visited the property when she could to enjoy some creature comforts and spend quality time with her parents, who still own it.
In 1992, Melania took part in a modelling contest for Slovenian magazine Jana, bagging the second runner-up prize: a contract with the Riccardo Gay agency in Milan. This would prove to be her big break. According to The New Yorker, the runway novice packed her bags and jetted off to the Italian fashion capital to get the ball rolling on her career. Here she is looking sultry on one of her first jobs in the city. Around this time, she Germanised her name to Melania Knaus, adding an extra S to the surname later down the line.
Melania stayed in an apartment owned by the agency and participated in shoot after shoot, but didn't make much money and returned to Slovenia after just a few months. The upside was that she was armed with a decent portfolio by this point and in 1993, Melania took her book and travelled to Vienna to meet with Wolfgang Schwarz, the well-connected founder of Look Models International.
Schwarz wasn't overly impressed but did get her some work and later in 1993, Melania landed a job walking for Gucci and Valentino in Milan. With her modelling career coming along nicely, Melania ended up in Paris during the mid-1990s, picking up French in the process – Melania is said to speak several languages in addition to Slovenian and English, though her level of fluency has been questioned.
Melania's home in Paris was a sixth-floor walk-up apartment just minutes away from the iconic Notre Dame Cathedral in the heart of the city. The hard-working model shunned the party lifestyle and focussed 100% on her career, landing jobs with several high-end French fashion houses during her time there.
Melania shared the apartment with future Playboy Playmate of the Year Victoria Silvstedt. Fresh from representing Sweden at the 1993 Miss World pageant, the blonde bombshell was modelling for the likes of Chanel and Dior. She later praised tidy, quiet Melania as “the perfect roommate," describing her as "stunning, gracious and real class". The friends would cook simple meals together such as tuna salad and walk up and down the building's staircase to stay trim. Here they are in 2003 with Donald at a Playboy event.
In 1995, Melania met Metropolitan modelling agency partner Paolo Zampolli in Milan, where this picture was taken. Zampolli, who represented Victoria Silvstedt, Claudia Schiffer and other supermodels, took a shine to the young model and urged her to try her luck in New York. The agency boss arranged Melania's visitor's visa and she left for the Big Apple in August 1996.
Melania moved into a poky apartment in the Zeckendorf Towers condo complex on the east side of Manhattan's Union Square, which she shared with fashion photographer Matthew Atanian. By October 1996, Melania had secured a HN-1 work visa reserved for fashion models "of distinguished merit and ability" as per the requirements.
Here's a typical unit in the complex. According to Atanian, Melania was the ideal roomie: tidy, quiet and never brought anyone home. Melania, who previously had a string of boyfriends, including it is rumoured Slovenia's first male supermodel, is said to have taken a break from dating in 1995, no doubt to concentrate on her modelling career.
Melania reportedly did date a bit in New York – Atanian has said she wasn't averse to having a civilised dinner with a wealthy gentleman – but had no partner of note when she first encountered Donald, who was on a date with cosmetics heiress Celina Midelfart. The pair were introduced by Zampolli in September 1998 at a New York Fashion Week party in Times Square's Kit Kat Club.
Smitten, Donald made a beeline for Melania while his plus-one was in the bathroom. Melania was rather aloof at first, but found him “attractive” and agreed to take his number. Within a couple of weeks, the duo went on their first proper date, a soirée at Greenwich village nightclub Moomba. Here they are in late September 1998 at Cipriani restaurant.
Melania's relationship with Donald went from strength to strength, as did her career, with the higher profile she'd garnered from being with the real estate mogul landing her spreads in Sports Illustrated and British GQ in 2000. Controversially, Melania got her green card in 2001 on the EB-1 'Einstein' visa ordinarily reserved for immigrants “with extraordinary ability” such as world-class scientists and Olympic athletes. That same year, she officially moved into a Fifth Avenue landmark, Trump Tower.
Located atop the flashy 58-storey Fifth Avenue tower, the triplex sprawls over 10,996 square feet according to official records obtained by Forbes, though Donald has claimed it's three times bigger. The décor is famously OTT. Louis XIV on steroids, the apartment is packed with reproduction antique Baroque furniture, quality copies of Old Master and Impressionist paintings and other flashy touches.
Melania is shown here in 2016 giving Fox News host Greta Van Susteren a tour of the penthouse. In contrast to her husband's brash tastes, Melania reportedly has a penchant for “clean, modern lines”. Yet there is little of that in the Trump Tower apartment and even Melania's office features a super-ornate Louis XIV-style desk and gold-framed fake Renoir – the one in the background of this shot is also a reproduction.
In 2016, Melania bought a one-bedroom Trump Tower apartment for $1.5 million (£1.3m). No pictures of the unit have been released but here is the similarly sized property that sits directly below, which is currently listed with Keller Williams for just under $2 million (£1.7m). The apartment was likely bought for staff use though rather than for Melania herself.
When she shacked up with Donald, Melania also got the perk of joining her beau for sunkissed sojourns at his lavish Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida's Palm Beach. Donald bought the 118-room Spanish-Moorish-style palace, which was built in the 1920s, for a song in 1985 and spent millions refurbishing the interiors of the sumptuous oceanfront property.
Mar-a-Lago was actually one of the first places Donald took his new love when they got together in 1998 and Melania is said to have been charmed by the property from the get-go. The beachfront estate, which serves as an ultra-exclusive private member's club and is packed with high-end amenities, remains one of her favourite places. This picture of the couple at the estate was taken in 1999.
Melania is shown here at Mar-a-Lago in 2000 with Donald and his mother Mary. Melania and Donald, whose divorce from Marla Maples had been finalised in 1999, didn't marry for another six years. They tied the knot in January 2005 at the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach and held their reception at Mar-a-Lago. Melania wore a Dior gown and the 350-strong guestlist included Bill and Hillary Clinton, Elton John, Shaquille O'Neal, Anna Wintour and Heidi Klum.
Finally proving she'd arrived, Melania landed an American Vogue cover a month after the wedding. Melania and her husband showcased the magnificence of Mar-a-Lago to its full effect on Christmas Eve, 2017 when they invited the press into the property's beguiling gold-clad living room to photograph them taking part in NORAD Santa Tracker phone calls. During the presidency, Donald and Melania spent most of their time away from the White House at the estate.
Together with son Barron, who was born in March 2006, the couple lives in the owner's suite when they're at Mar-a-Lago, which now serves as their official home. The suite houses the Pine Hall and Louis XV Hall living rooms, Versailles Master Bedroom, and an additional bedroom, bathrooms and offices.
Melania is said to have enraged Donald in 2020 when she gave the suite a contemporary makeover, opting for lots of sleek dark wood and white marble. Donald reportedly had the new additions removed and his fancy antique-style furnishings reinstated. Here's how the Versailles Master Bedroom looked back in the 1990s.
As if Mar-a-Lago and Trump Tower weren't impressive enough, Melania got to enjoy plush stays at yet another uber-luxe property after she met Donald, the 230-acre Seven Springs estate in New York's Westchester County, which he snapped up for $7.5 million (£6.1m) in 1995 with a view to transforming it into a golf club.
After local campaigners thwarted his plans, Donald used the enchanting estate as a vacation home. Built in 1919 for financier Eugene Meyer, the 15-bedroom main mansion is simply divine with relatively subdued interiors for a Trump property, and features all sorts of top-end amenities, including three wow-factor pools.
In 2002, Trump acquired the 520 acres that would become the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey for $35 million (£29.1m), and opened the first course in 2004. Donald and Melania, who has called the club her “country retreat”, use a cottage next to the main pool when they're staying at the property.
While it's relatively small for a Trump property, the abode does have a certain grandeur with its round tower and columned entrance. In 2017, the house became one of the president's three official residences, along with Trump Tower and Mar-a-Lago. These days, the couple and their son visit regularly and stay there in summer to escape the fierce Florida heat.
A seemingly reluctant first lady, Melania remained in New York with Barron for a lengthy five months following Donald's move into the White House in January 2017, ostensibly so as not to disrupt her son's education. But Washington Post reporter, Mary Jones alleges that she was renegotiating her prenup during the period, which followed reports of Donald's affair with a Playboy Playmate. CNN correspondent Kate Bennett said that when she did finally move into the White House she slept in her own bedroom on a different floor from her husband's in her book Free, Melania: The Unauthorized Biography.
Once ensconced in the executive mansion, Melania set about putting her personal stamp on it and had her office painted in a baby pink colour from Farrow & Ball called Middleton Pink. She also hired former Ralph Lauren designer Tham Kannalikham to make over the private quarters in a restrained Scandi-cool style. Donald allegedly hated the revamp and replaced the furniture with pieces in keeping with his fave "gilded, triumphal style of Louis XIV”. Melania had more luck with the formal Red Room (pictured), in which she oversaw the replacement of the room's sun-damaged wall coverings and upholstery.
Melania had the Blue Room's sublime Bellangé Suite from 1819 restored. Melania is posing here in November 2019 with the first lady of Turkey, Ermine Erdogan on one of the restored sofas. Other formal rooms that got a refresh include the East Room, while Melania helped design a new rug for the Diplomatic Reception Room.
If Melania's revamp of the White House's formal rooms were subtle tweaks, the festive decorations she selected were anything but. Her creepy picks – namely the foreboding bare branches and dramatic horror lighting for Yuletide 2017 and 2018's blood red trees – were lampooned by the media for being more suitable for Halloween than Christmas and inspired a flood of hilarious internet memes.
Melania's restoration of the White House Rose Garden, famously designed by Jackie Kennedy and mega-wealthy landscape designer Bunny Mellon in 1961, was just as controversial. The 2020 overhaul, which included replacing colourful blooms with muted flowers and removing several cherry and crab apple trees, was derided by critics, with one labelling it an “evisceration”. The Washington Post's Adrian Higgins however was more forgiving, calling the revamp long overdue.
At the height of the pandemic in December 2020, Melania's team announced the completion of the White House tennis pavilion, another of the first lady's pet projects. It too elicited a negative response from some parts of the media. CNN for instance called the project “tone deaf” at a time when Americans were suffering the worst ravages of COVID-19.
Melania's renovation of the White House Bowling Alley also drew its fair share of ire, with critics pouring scorn on the embossed bowling balls and other overly fancy touches despite the fact the facelift was paid for by the Bowling Proprietors’ Association of America rather than taxpayers. Melania is shown here in the room in May 2019 promoting her Be Best campaign.
Melania's key initiative as first lady, the campaign focused on improving the wellbeing of America's young people and fighting cyberbullying. In general, Melania was a low-key first lady compared to predecessors such as Michelle Obama, but she did eventually get used to the glare of the media.
After vacating the White House in January 2021, the Trumps decamped to Mar-a-Lago, which remains their primary home. As we've mentioned, Melania, Donald and Barron split their time between the Florida estate and Bedminster cottage, and while their stays in New York these days are comparatively fleeting, the Trump Tower penthouse remains a key residence.
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