From a modest shoe-town childhood in Slovenia, to Manhattan catwalks, a life of luxury, and the White House, Melania Trump’s rise to First Lady has been anything but ordinary
Many people may not know of Melania Trump’s humble beginnings.
Before the 55-year-old became a model or married wealthy business mogul and President of the United States, Donald Trump, she lived in a small industrial town.
Born as Melanija Knavs, she was a local girl from the quiet shoe-factory town of Sevnica, Slovenia, nestled along the Sava River. Sevnica’s serene countryside with a shoe-shaped sculpture by the river nods to the town’s industrial heritage. Her mother, Amalija Knavs, worked in a state‑owned textile factory, and her father, Viktor Knavs, was a car salesman and manager for a state‑owned vehicle company in Slovenia. The couple married in 1966. Amalija passed away in January 2024 at the age of 79.
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Melania’s childhood home, found on Ribniki Street, was an unassuming house on a leafy lane, according to The New Yorker. Their apartment was atypically decorated with brightly colored walls. When she was a teenager, she moved to a two-story house in Sevnica with her family.
Melanija has an older sister, Ines, and an older half-brother from her father’s previous relationship, Denis Cigelnjak, whom she reportedly has never met. Her father denied paternity of Denis even after it was confirmed by a paternity test.
Melania’s early fascination with fashion came from the glossy magazines her mother brought home. As a child, like other children of factory workers, she participated in fashion shows featuring children’s clothing.
She began pursuing modeling seriously after briefly studying Architecture and Civil and Geodetic Engineering at the University of Ljubljana, leaving after a few months without completing her degree.
At sixteen, Melania was discovered by Slovenian fashion photographer Stane Jerko after modeling in a school-sponsored show.
She soon began traveling across Europe for modeling assignments, including one in which she portrayed the first female president of the United States in 1993, and 1996, she moved to Manhattan. Just two years later, she met her future husband, Donald Trump. The couple went on to marry in January 2005 and have their first child together a year later, son Barron Trump.
In 2019, a wooden statue honoring Melania was installed in Sevnica’s countryside. Carved from a linden-tree stump, it depicted her in the pale blue dress she wore at the 2017 inauguration.
The statue was set on fire in July 2020 and subsequently replaced by a life-size bronze version in September. This bronze statue, installed near Sevnica in the village of Rožno, was eventually sawed off at the ankles and removed in May 2025, with Slovenian police launching an investigation into its disappearance.
