Is Melania In Love With Trump? First Lady Met The President After He Ditched His Ex-Girlfriend In A Bathroom For Her

The first family of the United States isn’t exactly "conventional" by any means. President Donald Trump had zero political experience upon taking office while his wife, Melania Trump (the first immigrant to become first lady since Louisa Quincy Adams in 1825) refused to live with him in Washington, D.C., instead living out the first 100 days of the trump administration from her $100 million penthouse in New York City’s Trump Towers.

Even the couple's first encounter in 1998 was far from normal, though it may very well have been love at first sight. An article AOL published Monday explored the Trumps’ love life, detailing the president’s initial reaction to the sight of Melania Trump, as well as the controversial steps he took to ditch his then-girlfriend and make the elegant, young model his wife.

Trump – a divorcee who was playing the dating field after separating from his first wife Ivana Trump in 1990 and leaving his second wife Marla Maples in 1993 – met Melania Knauss at a New York City Fashion Week party when she was just 28-years-old. Trump was 52-years-old.

The future president was attending the function with his former girlfriend, Celina Midelfart, whom he had been dating for several months, but reportedly ditched her in a public bathroom to instead spend his time with another woman.

"I went crazy," Trump said of his reaction to Melania Trump in an interview with Larry King in 2005. "I said, forget about [Midelfart]. I said, ‘who’s the one on the left?’ And it was Melania."

Melania Trump has said she refused to give out her number to the real estate mogul at the time, saying in a Harper's Bazaar interview last year, "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,’” Melania Trump said. “I was struck by his energy," she said. "He has an amazing sense of vitality… I remember that night like it was two months ago.”

The Trumps eventually began a rocky relationship following their initial encounter, repeatedly breaking up and living along until marrying Jan. 22, 2005. According to the first lady, her relationship with Trump has been mostly smooth sailing ever since.

"We are very equal in the relationship and that's very important," Melania Trump told Larry King in their first television joint-interview as newlyweds. "To marry a man like Donald is, you need to know who you are. And you need to be very strong and smart. He needs to know that he could rely on me sometimes. We share a lot of stuff together."