The Biggest Rumors About Melania Trump

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Donald Trump is no stranger to making news for all the wrong reasons, but he's not the only Trump who's been endlessly scrutinized. It seems that anyone who's ever dealt with the 47th president is immediately pulled into the spotlight –- even Trump's kids can't escape the rumor mill. That being said, one of the people who continues to garner the most interest is Melania Trump.

She's been called "enigmatic" by the BBC and has fascinated supporters and critics alike from the moment Trump first ran for president back in 2016. Not one to embrace convention, she's always done things her way, admitting in her 2024 memoir, "Melania" (via Fox News), "I embrace my individuality and confidently walk my own path." That, in turn, has only served to further fan the flames of speculation.

Rumors about Donald Trump's marriage have run rampant for years and so have (false) stories about Melania herself. From her looks to her alleged obsession with money and all the supposed reasons Melania stepped back from the spotlight following her husband's first term in office, folks simply can't stop talking about Mrs. Trump. Here are all of the biggest rumors about Melania Trump to date.

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Donald and Melania Trump's union has been scrutinized to excess, and there have been numerous stories over the years claiming that Melania doesn't really care about her relationship. Rather, skeptics say she's most concerned about the assets she and son Barron Trump are entitled to. Even Melania's former friend and aide, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, went as far as to tell the BBC, "I do believe it's a transactional marriage."

Author Mary Jordan seemed to agree, claiming in her 2020 book, "The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump," that Melania delayed moving into the White House in 2017 until she finished renegotiating her prenup. "She wanted proof in writing that when it came to financial opportunities and inheritance, Barron would be treated as more of an equal to Trump's oldest three children," Jordan alleged (via The Washington Post). Melania's team quickly shut down the claims, calling them false.

However, that didn't stop the rumors from resurfacing in 2023. Sources told Radar that Melania threatened to renegotiate their prenup — or even potentially separate or divorce — after Donald was ordered to pay $5 million to E. Jean Carroll. In order to save face ahead of the 2024 election, Donald reportedly agreed to up Melania's monthly allowance and Barron's inheritance. "She took advantage of the situation," said one source. Meanwhile, another insider told Page Six that Melania had actually spent an entire year "quietly negotiating" the premarital agreement to her advantage. Notably, no concrete sources have ever confirmed either claim.

Following Donald Trump's 2017 move into the White House, Melania Trump took her time before joining her husband. While the then-first lady explained she was simply waiting for Barron Trump to finish school in New York, others claimed she was biding time to finish renegotiating their prenup.

Others alleged that Melania initially stayed behind because she wasn't ready to stop her affair with the head of security working at the Tiffany's boutique in the Trump Tower lobby. Author Monica Byrne first shared the theory in since-deleted tweets (via Perez Hilton), claiming that the romance had been going on for years and that Donald was fully aware of it. The rumored affair partner has since been identified as Henry "Hank" Siemers, the vice president of global protection services for Tiffany & Co.

While the rumors initially died down, they resurfaced in 2019 when a former employee on "The Celebrity Apprentice" named Noel Casler appeared to corroborate Byrne's claims. "Melania didn't live with him in Trump Tower either, she lived with her boyfriend," he tweeted. "We had to book the transport on 'Apprentice' finales and her pick-up was NOT on 5th Ave."

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Speculation around Melania Trump's extramarital love life extended to include a head of state after she and Donald Trump attended the G7 summit in August 2019. When the first lady was snapped giving a double cheek kiss to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, many found her body language to be a little too cozy.

Soon, #MelaniaLovesTrudeau began trending, as users shared snaps that appeared to show Melania lovingly gazing at the PM before delivering her kiss. "I pray that you can all find a woman who looks at you the way Melania looks at Justin Trudeau," read one cheeky tweet. Others even went as far as to post side-by-side images of Trudeau and Barron, claiming they were doppelgangers. "Try to convince me that Barron is actually Donald's kid," tweeted one skeptic.

Interestingly, Melania was holding her husband's hand during the viral moment, but according to body language expert Patti Wood, that didn't negate her intimate demeanor towards Trudeau. "She's looking with pleasure — 'It's a delight to kiss you; I desire it,'" Wood told InStyle, noting that Melania had entered the prime minister's personal space. "The body language is that of a romantic kiss," she mused. Even so, there has never been any actual evidence to suggest that the two shared more than a friendly greeting.

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Melania and Donald Trump's marriage has been dissected from a myriad of angles, and numerous sources have speculated that the couple rarely sees eye-to-eye. Indeed, former staffers and insiders told New York Times White House correspondent Katie Rogers that the Trumps were in constant disagreement behind closed doors.

In her 2024 book about first ladies, "American Woman: The Transformation of the Modern First Lady, from Hillary Clinton to Jill Biden," Rogers wrote that the pair butted heads over everything from décor to television. One source alleged that after Melania picked out the furniture for their first White House term, "[Donald] replaced her choices with several pieces he liked better." What's more, Mr. Trump, a Fox News devotee, reportedly became "incensed that his wife's television was tuned to CNN aboard Air Force One during an overseas trip" and ordered that all the plane's TVs only show Fox from that moment on.

Adding fuel to the fire was Melania's own 2024 memoir in which she wrote about being unequivocally pro-choice. However, Donald later said he wasn't bothered by his wife's beliefs and supported her speaking her truth. He even recalled on Fox News (via USA Today) telling Melania, "You have to write what you believe -– I'm not going to tell you what to do." Similarly, Melania assured viewers their marriage was as solid as ever, proclaiming on Fox News in 2024, "We have a beautiful relationship."

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Melania Trump was not your typical first lady, to say the least, choosing to stay out of the limelight whenever she could. While Donald Trump has previously said that his wife is an exceptionally private person, some critics claim that Melania wasn't as involved as other first ladies because she hated her first term in the White House.

According to the 2024 book about first ladies titled "American Woman," Melania was so miserable in her role, she often turned down events, rarely set foot in the East Wing, and eventually took to lounging around the White House in her terry cloth bathrobe "at all hours" of the day. The tome claims that her displeasure mounted so much that, by the end of the first four years, Melania was "checked out and exhausted." So much so that she didn't even bother to write "thank you" cards to her staff, instead asking a subordinate to do it for her, according to sources speaking to CNN.

Melania's alleged contempt for the role was on full display in 2020 when former aide Stephanie Winston Wolkoff shared a secret 2018 audio with CNN in which the first lady appeared to dismiss her duties. "Who gives a f*** about the Christmas stuff and decorations?" Melania can be heard asking Wolkoff. For her part, Mrs. Trump later said the clip didn't represent her true feelings and was taken out of context.

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Melania Trump has always been meticulous about her looks, but many believe she's turned to surgery for a little help, and this includes plastic surgeons themselves. In 2024, the Daily Mail asked various pros to analyze Melania's face over the years, and they speculated she's had everything from fillers to a non-invasive microneedling procedure called Morpheus 8, which may have lifted and tightened her jaw.

New York-based plastic surgeon Dr. Gary Linkov even filmed an entire YouTube video analyzing Melania's transformation, starting from the time she was a 17-year-old model in 1987. Linkov believed she had a nose job between the ages of 17 and 28, possible cheek implants around the age of 34, and a lateral brow lift in 2007 at age 37. He also speculated Melania is a lover of lip fillers and Botox, and that she may have had a face lift around 2019 when she was 49. The estimated total cost of all of her procedures could be around $203,000, according to Linkov, including a $50,000 facelift and $100,000 spent on Botox since 2007.

As for Melania herself, she's denied ever getting any work done. "I'm against Botox; I'm against injections," she told GQ in 2016, noting that her looks come down to living a healthy lifestyle and good skincare. "It's all me –- I will age gracefully, as my mom does," she concluded.

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In what is easily one of the wackiest conspiracy theories to surround the Trump family, some folks are convinced that a body double has been used to fill in for Melania Trump whenever she doesn't want to make a public appearance herself. The bizarre rumor began in 2017 when a California man tweeted images of Melania walking with a Secret Service agent who looked similar to her and claimed the latter was actually a stand-in for the first lady. Former Secret Service agent Jonathan Wackrow debunked the claims in an interview with CNN, saying the "Secret Service doesn't use body doubles," but the conspiracy has continued to resurface.

In 2019, #FakeMelania began trending again, and the then-president actually responded, pinning the blame on his opponents. "The Fake News photoshopped pictures of Melania, then propelled conspiracy theories that it's actually not her by my side," Donald Trump slammed on X, formerly known as Twitter.

A 2020 photo of the couple on Marine One then reignited the conspiracy — "They think we won't notice this?" asked one Facebook user (via USA Today) -– before it made the rounds yet again in 2024. After the Trumps arrived to cast their votes in Palm Beach, Florida, some folks were convinced it wasn't actually Melania who voted. "Temu Melania?" tweeted one user while another proclaimed, "This is absolutely, categorically NOT #MELANIA!"

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Donald and Melania Trump have been plagued by divorce rumors for years, but chatter really heated up following reports in 2018 about alleged hush money payments made to Donald's alleged affair partner, Stormy Daniels. As Melania kept quiet on the drama, former Trump aide Omarosa Manigault Newman claimed in her 2018 book, "Unhinged: An Insider's Account of the Trump White House" (via Metro), "Melania is counting every minute until he is out of office and she can divorce him."

Jump to the end of Trump's term in 2021, and that didn't happen, but talk of an impending split hasn't quieted down. People continued to speculate about possible reasons why Melania and Donald hadn't split yet, and in October 2024, a social media post actually claimed Melania had told Donald she wanted a divorce. The Trump campaign quickly debunked the story.

Indeed, Melania herself had nothing but praise for her husband while promoting the release of her memoir, "Melania," that same month. She told Fox News their first date was an "enjoyable and memorable evening," then tweeted a video proclaiming, "From the moment Donald and I met, there was an undeniable spark." As for her notable absence from the 2024 campaign trail, Donald explained that Melania does support him, she just doesn't like being in the spotlight. "If I didn't introduce Melania, she'd be very happy about it," he once expressed during a Fox News town hall (via The Hill).