Breaking News:Melania had trust issues with Donald Trump from the very start Read More: More Details 👇

Melania Trump was just 28 when she met future husband Donald Trump at a party during New York Fashion Week in 1998. 24 years her senior, Trump had a well-earned reputation as a lady’s man. He had already been married twice, divorcing wife Ivanka after his affair with Marla Maples, who went on to become his second ex-wife before they married and then divorced. In fact, Trump was on a date with another woman when he asked for Melania’s number; she declined, instead asking for his. 

Before long, they began dating. “We had a great connection,” she recalled in a 2016 interview with GQ. However, they weren’t long into their relationship when she decided to break up. “She had some trust issues with him at the beginning,” said Matthew Atanian, her former roommate and photographer. “She was telling me that she wouldn’t have it, he was back to his old ways. She kept her apartment to have her own space because of this.”

However, Atanian revealed they got back together just a few months later. As the magazine pointed out, it’s unclear whether she gave him an ultimatum to remain faithful or whether she simply made peace with the fact that he could stray. Whatever the case, Trump clearly clicked the boxes for her. “It’s about all that power and protection,” an “old friend” from her village in Slovenia told GQ. “I think she needed a strong man, a father figure.”

It’s no secret that, prior to her marriage, Melania Trump was a top model who wasn’t a prude when it came to nudity; She was regularly seen in magazines sporting lingerie and had no problem taking it all off for a steamy GQ photoshoot back in 2000. In 2016, when Donald Trump was campaigning for president, a false rumor spread that sex work was a part of Melania’s modeling career.

Slovenian magazine, Suzy, published that the modeling agency she worked for was actually a front for an elite escort agency for wealthy clients — and that Melania herself was a high-end escort. Britain’s Daily Mail ran with the story in their profile on Melania, sharing all the salacious details while also concluding there was no truth to the rumor, which first originated in a tell-all book that may not even exist (the publication could find no trace of its author).

That led her to sue the Daily Mail for libel, seeking $150 million in damages. The Daily Mail issued retractions and an apology to Melania. As CBS News reported, Slovenske Novice newspaper, publisher of Suzy, issued a statement on its website insisting that the story “never claimed that Melania Trump offered services of sexual escort.” She proceeded with her lawsuit, and won. The damages, however, were nowhere near the $150 million she was asking for, but were reportedly in the $3 million range.