Former President and business mogul Donald Trump spent Christmas with his family at his Mar-a-Lago resort. As is customary, they posted a family photo featuring his sons, daughters, and grandchildren. The only one missing was his wife, Melania Trump. As expected, people began to speculate about the reasons behind Melania’s absence, and the truth is devastating.

Melania’s life has been fascinating. Melania Knauss was born on April 26, 1970 in Novo Mesto, Slovenia, and grew up in Sevnica, a tiny railway town. Melania and her sister Ines had a privileged life thanks to their parents, Viktor, a car mechanic and chauffeur, and Amalija, a pattern-maker in a textile factory. “I grew up with a beautiful family and had a wonderful childhood,” Melania Trump stated. “My mother and father taught us the importance of education, hard work and family.

“The two girls were usually immaculately dressed because their mother spent hours designing and creating clothing for them. Melania later created the clothing that her mother embroidered for her. “She was very pretty,” Tomšič, who has administered a local hospital to which Melania gave $25,000 after marrying Donald Trump, told GQ in 2016. “She was always very fancy.”

Viktor and Amalija, who had good careers in Yugoslavia at the time, took their daughters on vacation to Germany, France, and Italy. Melania was discovered by fashion photographer Stane Jerko when she was 16 years old and leaning against a fence while exiting a fashion presentation at the Festival Hall. “I saw this girl on the staircase at the entrance,” Jerko recounted. “She was tall and thin, with long hair.

I informed her who I was, what I did, and why I was photographing her. Melania left the University of Ljubljana in 1987 to pursue a career in modeling. It only took her a year to land a contract with a modeling agency in Milan. She met famed Italian businessman Paolo Zampolli, who assisted her in obtaining a work visa to the United States. Melania moved to New York and lived in a shared apartment in Gramercy Park, but because she was 26 years old at the time, which is considered older than the ordinary aspiring woman,

she decided to put everything on the line and appear naked for the French men’s magazine Max. This piqued many people’s interest, and Melania’s face appeared in a tobacco company commercial in Times Square shortly thereafter. Zampolli attended a Kit Kat Club event during New York Fashion Week in 1998 with a buddy, Donald Trump. He was on a date that night, but when he met Melania, he immediately wanted to learn more about her.

Edit Molnar, one of Melania’s friends, spoke about that night, explaining that Donald asked for Melania’s phone number, but she refused because he was not alone. “Melania explained, ‘He’s here with a woman. “I am not giving him my phone number,” Molnar told the New York Post. “She would not even consider it. Donald did all of the work. Melania also discussed the night she first met Donald Trump. “He wanted my number,” she told Tatler.

“But he was on a date, so I did not give it to him. I said, ‘I am not giving you my phone number; give me yours and I will call you.’ If I give him my phone number, I’ll be just another woman he phones.”After they met again, things progressed and the two began to date. Melania had already been residing at Trump Tower when she received her green card in 2001. They married three years later, and their son, Baron Trump, was born in 2006.

Melania ended her modeling career, but she never stopped working, despite her husband’s immense fortune. Melania thanked her parents for their sacrifice in her address after Donald Trump elected President of the United States of America. “My parents worked very hard to ensure our family could not only live and prosper in America but also contribute to a nation that allows for people to arrive with a dream and make it a reality,” she went on to say.

“I’d like to take a moment to thank my mother and father for everything they’ve done for our family. Because of you, I am standing here today.”The New York Times reports that Melania’s parents “split their time among an apartment in Trump Tower, Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, and the suite in the White House once used by Mrs. Obama’s mother.” Melania is quite close to her parents, and her mother is the reason why the former First Lady did not spend Christmas with them.

Unfortunately, Melania’s mother is ill and requires the presence of her daughter, according to Donald Trump.”Melania—great First Lady, so popular, people adore her—is currently in the hospital with her mother. Her mother, Amalija, is quite unwell, but maybe she will recover,” Trump stated. “But she’s been very ill, so I just wanted to say ‘hello’ to the First Lady—we just spoke, down in Miami, great hospital—and hopefully they’ll be fine, but it’s a tough one, a very tough one.” She knows approximately 95 percent of the folks in this room. We just want to wish Amalija a speedy recovery.”