Melania Trump has always been considered a beautiful woman. In her teenage years, the Slovenian-born former first lady began her modeling career, which ultimately led her to the US and marriage to Donald Trump.

As soon as Melania came to the US, her modeling career skyrocketed. She became famous instantly, mainly because of one ad, and it didn’t take long before she met her future husband. 

She has managed to keep her youthful looks, but some argue that the 53-year-old has used Botox and other methods to stay young. Not long ago, Melania Trump spilled the truth. 

Melania Trump – born Melania Knauss – was born on April 26, 1970, in Novo Mesto, Slovenia. She grew up in the small railway town of Sevnica.

Melania Trump – early life & modeling career

Her father, Viktor, was a car mechanic and chauffeur, and her mother, Amalija, worked as a pattern-maker at a clothing factory. Amalija – who sadly passed away a month ago – had a great passion for design and spent hours and hours making clothes for Melania and her older sister, Ines.

“I grew up with a beautiful family and had a wonderful childhood,” Melania Trump has said. “My mother and father taught us the importance of education, hard work and family.”

Melania grew up in a modest home, but her parents were a big deal in the small town of Sevnica. She studied at a special high school for industrial design and photography, but at 16, her life would change. And it was purely down to coincidence.

While leaving a fashion show at the Festival Hall, fashion photographer Stane Jerko noticed Melania leaning on a fence.

Then – in 1987 – photographers didn’t have the opportunity to find new faces for their work through the Internet. Instead, chancing upon someone in real life was how it was sometimes done.

“By the staircase at the entrance, I saw this girl,’ Jerko recalled. “She was tall, slim, with long hair. I told her who I was, what I did, and why I would photograph her.”

At this point, Melania wanted to study to become an architect. But at the same time, this was a big opportunity. Meanwhile, Jerko thought the girl had something special.

“She was shy and reserved at first,” he explained. “Not wanting to open herself up. But she quickly got into it and began asking questions: ‘Why are you constantly moving the light? Is this how I should be holding myself?’”

Move to New York

Melania ended up studying at the University of Ljubljana. After just a year, though, she decided to pursue her dream of being a model. She hired a photographer to put together a portfolio for her.

A year later, at 18, she signed with a modeling agency in Milan. She spent a couple of years doing modeling work in Milan and Paris and was doing very well.

At this point, Melania wanted to advance in her career. She came into contact with wealthy Italian businessman Paolo Zampolli, who set her up with a modeling contract and a work visa for her to travel to the US.

In 1996, Melania Trump left for New York City. There, she lived in a shared apartment at Gramercy Park, but since she was 26 years old – much older than the average aspiring model at the time – she gambled and put everything on the line.

Melania said she was “determined,” but she had to do something extra in the era of supermodels like Kate Moss and Cindy Crawford. Melania decided to appear without any clothes in the French men’s magazine Max. Ultimately, being 26 years “old” actually turned out to be an advantage for her.

Due to a law that prohibited younger models from promoting tobacco, Melania’s face was soon all over Times Square in a commercial for a cigarette company.

Irene Marie later represented Melania, and she says that the aspiring model was a composed young woman who took her work seriously.

“[Melania] wasn’t the most expensive model, but she was a high-end model,” Marie said.

“She was not a party girl”

“What I particularly liked about Melania was that she wasn’t part of the nightlife scene, where all you had to do was open different magazines to see which clubs your models were at. It was the era of cocaine, drugs and clubs, and you had to watch out for your models. Melania, though, had a reputation for being serious and focused.”

Between work, Melania usually designed and sewed clothes for herself and her friends. Zampolli quickly realized, just as Irene Marie did, that she wasn’t into partying.

“It was unusual for her to go out; she never went to clubs or bars,” Paolo Zampolli told the NY Post. “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,” he added. “She was not a party girl.”

Melania Trump promoted herself by Zampolli sending her and other models to events where photographers and producers were in attendance, among other ways.

In 1998, at one of these events at the Kit Kat Club during New York Fashion Week, Paolo Zampolli had invited a good friend of his. A businessman named Donald Trump.

Melania Trump – plastic surgery rumors

The wealthy real-estate mogul had just divorced his second wife, Marla Maples, and came to the event with a date. However, when he saw Melania, he wanted to get to know her instead.

“I went crazy. I was actually supposed to meet somebody else. There was this great supermodel sitting next to Melania,” Donald Trump told Larry King in 2005. “They said, ‘Look, there’s so and so.’ I said, ‘Forget about her. Who is the one on the left? And it was Melania.”

While Melania didn’t feel much for Donald Trump initially, saying that she was “turned off” by him, things changed. The rest is history.

Melania Trump has always been considered good-looking, and her beauty evolution is quite something. However, over the years, there have been speculations and rumors about her undergoing some plastic surgery, botox, or lip fillings.

So, did she or didn’t she go through any cosmetic surgery? When experts get their say, there is no doubt she has made some changes to her appearance.

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Of course, these are just speculations, and no one can for sure say that she has done any treatments.

“Her face has a stony look from being overfilled and over-botoxed,” Dr. Franklin Rose told The Skincare Edit. “Melania’s forehead is as smooth as a baby’s rear end, so she’s had liberal amounts of Botox for sure. Her cheeks, along with the nasolabial lines between the nose and corners of the mouth, likely have fillers. [Her rhinoplasty] is a beautiful job. Whoever is treating her now is just a little overzealous with the injectables.”

Dr. Dev Patel, medical director of Perfect Skin Solutions in Portsmouth, agreed with Rose, saying there have been “obvious signs” of her “likely” having done botox treatments.

“She was giving a rather personal account of her background, yet her upper face was not moving in harmony with her words. In fact, it was not moving at all. This suggests too heavy doses are being used by her doctor,” he said.

Doctor claims Melania has had “forehead contouring with filler”

A third expert, Dr. Jag Chana, says that what stands out when comparing pictures of Melania Trump from when she was younger and later in life is that her nasal shape has changed.

“The nose is narrower and the tip is more refined. The very minor irregularities along the bridge line are suggestive of an osteotomy which is part of the procedure during a rhinoplasty, which narrows the nose. Compared to her younger photograph, the top lip appears fuller. This likely is a result of lip fillers. The forehead is completely smooth and wrinkle free—so likely Botox.”

“I would say Melania has had forehead contouring with filler to make it more rounded, with Botox to lift the brows,” a fourth expert, Dr. Munir Somji, adds. “She also appears to have had buccal fat removal to slim the face, alongside fillers around the jawline with radio frequency tightening to give a chiselled look.”

Dr. Dev Patel also spoke to the Express about Melania’s possible cosmetic surgeries. He estimated that they all and all probably had cost around $13,000.

“I think few people could deny that she is strikingly beautiful in her still shots, but considering the masses now indulge in facial aesthetic treatments, I would be extremely surprised if an ex-model (who has such a spotlight on her) would not be doing the same,” he said.

Melania Trump says she’s “against” injections

So what is the truth? According to Melania Trump, she has never made any changes to her appearance. Speaking with GQ in 2016, she also denied she had undergone a breath augmentation.

“I didn’t make any changes,” Melania Trump said. “A lot of people say I am using all the procedures for my face. I didn’t do anything. I live a healthy life, I take care of my skin and my body. I’m against Botox, I’m against injections; I think it’s damaging your face, damaging your nerves. It’s all me. I will age gracefully, as my mom does.”

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