Melania Trump on Wednesday spoke about her childhood in Slovenia, saying she remembers it as "very beautiful" even though she grew up during the communist era. "I grew up in communism and honestly nothing was missing," she said, adding: "I think I had a very beautiful childhood."
She also reflected on the role of her parents, saying: "My parents provided my family and me with a beautiful childhood." However, she acknowledged the limitations of the system: "But, yes, there are some things you have to be aware of. You watched what you did." She added that "it wasn't as free as the United States of America today" and concluded: "It was a different time. But it was beautiful for me."
Her remarks come at a time when her husband, Donald Trump, has increasingly used the term "communism" in recent months to criticise Democrats and democratic socialists. Addressing the audience at the Republican convention this month, Trump said that they "are called democratic socialists but are actually communists."
Melania Trump was born as Melanija Knavs in 1970 in Novo Mesto, Slovenia, then part of Yugoslavia. She grew up in Sevnica, where her mother worked as a seamstress in a children's clothing factory. As a girl, she participated in fashion shows presenting children's clothing models. At 15, she enrolled at the School of Design and Photography in Ljubljana, commuting daily by train from her hometown, and after her first year moved to Ljubljana with her sister Ines. At 16 she began working as a model, and later built an international career under the name Melania Knauss, travelling to Paris and Milan in search of engagements.
In 1996 she moved to the United States, where she continued to work as a model in New York. Two years later, in 1998, she met Donald Trump at a party in New York, introduced by Italian agent Paolo Zampolli. Trump then asked for her phone number, but she refused to give it to him and asked for his instead. After a week she contacted him and they began dating. Their relationship initially lasted only a few weeks, but they soon reconciled. The couple attracted significant attention in 1999 with a joint appearance on The Howard Stern Show.
Donald Trump proposed to Melania on 26 April 2004, her birthday, as they were leaving the Met Gala. They married on 22 January 2005 at a church in Palm Beach, Florida, followed by a lavish reception at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate. Melania personally organised most of the wedding details and rejected Trump's proposal to broadcast the ceremony on television. A few months before the wedding, she travelled to Paris with Anna Wintour and André Leon Talley, where she chose a wedding dress designed by John Galliano, in which she also appeared on the cover of Vogue ahead of the wedding.
A year after the wedding, on 20 March 2006, they had a son, Barron William Trump. Melania chose his middle name, while Donald chose the first name. Melania Trump became a US citizen on 28 July 2006, and later sponsored the immigration of her parents to the US. Melania and Barron hold both American and Slovenian citizenship. In 2009 she launched her own jewellery brand under the name "Melania." She was also among those who encouraged Donald Trump to run for US president in 2016.
