Donald Trump met Melania (then Melania Knauss) in 1998 at a New York Fashion Week party in Manhattan, introduced by their mutual friend and modeling agent Paolo Zampolli. Most accounts place the meeting specifically around September 1998 at the Kit Kat Club in New York City.

Quick Scoop: How They Met

  • The meeting happened at a Fashion Week party in New York, where Melania was working as a model after moving from Slovenia to the US in the mid‑1990s.
  • The event was hosted by Paolo Zampolli, who knew both Trump and Melania through the modeling world and introduced them.
  • Trump was reportedly there on a date with another woman, but he was intrigued by Melania and asked for her number; she declined and took his numbers instead, later calling him back.

Relationship Timeline Highlights

  • 1998: First meeting at the New York Fashion Week party, leading to their early courtship.
  • 2004: Trump proposed to Melania after several years of dating.
  • January 2005: They married at Mar‑a‑Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, in a high‑profile wedding with many celebrity guests.
  • 2006: Their son Barron William Trump was born, further cementing their public profile as a couple.

Why This Is Trending Now

  • Renewed attention has come from Melania’s memoir, released in October 2024, in which she revisits that first 1998 party encounter and describes feeling at “the center of his world.”
  • With Donald Trump back in the White House and constant media focus on their marriage, forums and news outlets frequently revisit the origin story of how and when they first met.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.