Before she became the poised First Lady of the United States, Melania Trump lived a life wrapped in quiet mystery – one that includes a few carefully guarded romances. But few knew who they were. Until now.
Born Melanija Knavs in the tiny Slovenian town of Sevnica, Melania’s journey to global recognition is anything but ordinary. Long before her marriage to Donald Trump in 2005, she worked tirelessly to build a modelingcareer that took her from the streets of Ljubljana to Paris, Milan, and ultimately, New York City.
Melania meets Trump
Melania and the future president first crossed paths in 1998 at a Fashion Week party at the Kit Kat Club in Manhattan, hosted by Italian businessman Paolo Zampolli, who had signed her to his modeling agency, ID Model Management.
Despite Trump arriving at the party with a date, he was reportedly captivated by Melania and asked for her number.
But, according to her best friend Edit Molnar, the model was “turned off” by the real estate mogul and dating him was “absolutely out of the question.”
“Melania said, ‘He’s here with a woman. I am absolutely not giving him my number,’” Molnar told the New York Post about the conversation he had with his friend, who he described as a “homebody.” “She wouldn’t even consider it. Donald did all the work.”
‘Not a party girl’
Zampolli, who now serves as a U.S. Ambassador for Global Partnerships, added: “She never dated anyone in New York before Donald. She only went to movies by herself and to the gym.
“This is a woman who modeled for Camel cigarettes on a huge billboard in Times Square but stayed home all the time,” Zampolli said. “She was not a party girl.”
In January 2005, Melania married Donald in a lavish ceremony at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, and the couple welcomed their first child, Barron, the following year in 2006.
But before Donald, who were the men that caught Melania’s eye?
Alleged first love
One of the first men publicly linked to the former Sports Illustrated model is Peter Butoln, who claimed to be her teenage boyfriend during her school years in Slovenia.
“It was my first love. My first real love,” Butoln said in an interview with Inside Edition.
They reportedly met when Melania moved to Ljubljana at 17 to attend design school, Butoln shared, explaining that when he first saw her in the city center, he was instantly smitten.
“I saw her in a crowd of girls, and she was the most beautiful girl,” he said.
Their romance ended when he left for military service, and their final contact came in 1987, when Melania sent him a postcard that read: “I send you this postcard with nice warm regards from the seaside.”
However, a spokesperson for the FLOTUS later dismissed his claims, stating that Butoln was never her official boyfriend.