How Old Was Melania When She Met Donald Trump? What She's Said About Their Age Gap

Though several signs have pointed to their marriage being on the rocks since at least 2018 when the Stormy Daniels scandal came to light, Donald Trump and Melania Trump became husband and wife of 20 years in January 2025 when they marked the milestone anniversary of their lavish 2005 wedding. This likely came as a shock to some considering the numerous weird things about their relationship, from Melania's conflicting stories about their first date to the couple's awkward and unromantic attempts at PDA.

In fact, Melania and Donald's relationship had some glaring red flags from the get-go. She was a fully grown adult at 28 years old when she first met him at a New York Fashion Week party in 1998, but he was 24 years older than her and had hit on her while he was with another woman. At the time, he was still in the middle of divorcing his second wife Marla Maples, with whom he had an affair while married to his first wife Ivana Trump. Despite these, Melania gave Donald a chance. "He wanted my number, but he was with a date, so of course I didn't give it to him. I said, 'I am not giving you my number; you give me yours, and I will call you,'" she told Harper's Bazaar of their first meeting, adding that she ended up calling him a few days after they met. Melania also suggested that from the beginning, their significant age gap was a non-issue. "I was struck by his energy. He has an amazing sense of vitality," she recalled.

Donald Trump and Melania Trump are far from the only political couple with a huge age gap, but due to his billionaire status, their 24-year age difference received intense media and public scrutiny as soon as they began dating in 1998, with doubters claiming the Slovenian-born model was dating a man old enough to be her because he was wealthy. Melania addressed the rumors during a 1999 interview with ABC News correspondent Don Dahler, who pointed out that "you don't see many 26-year-old supermodels on the arm of 53-year-old car mechanics."

Melania was quick to deny the accusations that she was with Donald, then 52, for his money. "People who talk like this, they don't know me," she told Dahler. "You know what, you can't sleep or to hug or to talk with beautiful things, with beautiful apartment, beautiful plane, beautiful cars, beautiful houses, you can't do that. You could feel very empty. And if somebody said, 'You know, you're with the man because he's rich and famous,' they don't know me." She then insisted that she had genuine feelings for her then-boyfriend.

Melania once more shut down the rumors in her 2024 self-titled memoir, writing that she could have "easily captured the attention of numerous celebrities" if she were only after money, per Hello! magazine. She went on to note that she can afford to fund her lavish lifestyle on her own these days as she's managed to amass a fortune thanks to her work as a model, speaking engagements, and business ventures, which have included cosmetics, jewelry, and NFTs (though of course, many of those projects only came about after she married Trump).