The First Lady of America is very close to her family, who supported her journey from a small town in Slovenia to achieving her American dream.
Melania Trump, an American-Slovenian model, is once again becoming the First Lady of the United States following her husband Donald Trump’s re-election victory.
Her life story is not well known: a beauty born in Yugoslavia, Melania has been living her American dream since the early 1990s when she moved from Paris to New York. Five years into her modeling career, she met Donald Trump in 1998. They married in 2005, and in March 2006, they welcomed their son, Barron.
It is known that Melania Trump, born Melanija Knavs, comes from a modest family of the upper working class and that earlier this year, she lost her mother, with whom she was very close.
Who are Melania Trump’s parents?
Trump’s wife announced in January 2024 on the social media platform X that her mother, Amalija Knavs, passed away at the age of 79.
“With deep sadness, I inform you that my beloved mother, Amalija, has passed away—a woman who was always graceful, warm, and dignified,” Melania wrote. “She was entirely devoted to her husband, daughters, grandson, and son-in-law. We will miss her endlessly and continue to honor and cherish her legacy.”
Amalija Knavs was born in Yugoslavia in 1945, in what is now Slovenia. In her youth, she worked at “Jutranjka” in Sevnica after moving from the village of Raka, where she grew up on a farm cultivating onions.
She married young, tying the knot with Viktor Knavs. Together, they had their first daughter, Ines, followed by their younger daughter, Melania.
At one point, the family followed Melania to the United States. Through a process known as “chain migration,” the Knavs family settled in America, with Viktor and Amalija becoming U.S. citizens in 2018 while their son-in-law, Donald Trump, served as president.
They have spent the past years living at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
Melania’s father, Viktor, worked as a driver and car salesman. He always had a love for Western culture and often took his daughters to concerts by international stars such as Elton John and Tina Turner. As a result, Ines and Melania felt more connected to Italy and Austria than to the communist countries of Eastern Europe.
At one point, the secret police allegedly raided the Knavs family home in Slovenia due to suspicions about Viktor’s “lifestyle.” Melania later explained that neighbors had reported them.
Viktor was a member of the Communist Party, which provided the family with a somewhat more comfortable life at a time when only 5% of Slovenians were party members. Although Viktor didn’t openly display his political affiliation, relatives and neighbors were aware of his membership.
Who is Melania Trump’s sister?
Ines Knavs is Melania Trump’s older sister, who is said to have sparked Melania’s love for modeling and the runway. From a young age, Ines displayed elegance and an interest in the fashion world. Their mother, Amalija, worked in the textile industry, and the sisters often benefited from her sewing skills.
“They never wore store-bought clothes,” a source close to the Knavs family once revealed.
She studied industrial and fashion design in Slovenia and later attended workshops in Helsinki.
With only a two-year age difference, Ines and Melania once lived together in Ljubljana after leaving Sevnica and later moved to Milan. While Melania quickly and easily became a model, Ines struggled to establish herself as a designer, reportedly lacking the assertiveness needed to succeed in the fashion industry.
“She truly wanted to work in fashion but couldn’t make her way. She simply wasn’t like the other girls there, who acted like queens. She was very kind and polite,” said French photographer Ale de Basseville, who worked with the Knavs sisters.
Later, Ines followed Melania to America and now lives in New York, where she works in the arts and keeps a low public profile. There aren’t many recent photos of her, but she consistently supports her sister and brother-in-law, Donald Trump, on every occasion.
Melania has never met her brother
Melania Trump has another family member with whom she has no relationship or communication and, reportedly, has never even met. This is her half-brother, Denis Cigelnjak, who is now 58 years old and lives in Slovenia.
As reported by the Daily Mail in 2016, Viktor Knavs fathered Denis with a former girlfriend, whom he broke up with while she was pregnant.
Viktor allegedly never acknowledged his son, but after a DNA test confirmed he was the father, the court ordered him to pay child support for Denis. Denis now lives in Hrastnik, an hour away from the capital Ljubljana, and has never met his sisters.
“My mother, aunts, and uncles gave me everything,” Denis told Planet.si. “But that doesn’t mean I didn’t want to meet my father.”
He explained that his mother never wanted anything from Viktor and was disappointed when Viktor asked her to have an abortion after learning she was pregnant.
“My mother disagreed with that and wanted to keep me. She didn’t want anything from him because she was so disappointed,” Denis said. “Then my grandmother convinced her to request child support. My grandfather supported me for 18 years because my biological father often forgot to pay, even when the court reminded him.”
“I’ve always wondered how someone can abandon their own child,” Melania’s half-brother explained. “When the dust settles after the presidential elections in America, I would love to go out for a drink or pizza with my father and sisters.”
According to media reports from 2016, when Trump won the elections for the first time, Cigelnjak has a daughter named Mimi with his partner Maja, making Melania an aunt.
