Former First Lady Melania Trump will release a self-titled memoir this fall.
The notoriously private former model has been married to President Donald Trump since 2005 and is the mother to his youngest child, Barron.
“Melania is the powerful and inspiring story of a woman who has defined personal excellence, overcome adversity, and carved her own path,” states a synopsis of the book on Mrs. Trump’s website. “The former First Lady invites readers into her world, offering an intimate portrait of a woman who has lived an extraordinary life. Melania includes stories and images never before shared with the public.”
A native of Slovenia, Mrs. Trump was born Melanija Knavs. She began her modeling career in Europe before moving to New York in 1996.
She met New York real estate mogul Donald Trump at a fashion week party in 1998. At the time, Trump was in the middle of his divorce from his second wife, Marla Maples.
Mrs. Trump received her Green Card in 2001. She described the process of becoming an American citizen during a naturalization ceremony in Washington, D.C. in December 2023, saying her life revolved around “organizing paperwork.”
“'Patience and perseverance became my constant companions,” she said during her speech. “For me reaching the milestone marked the sunrise of certainty. At that exact moment, I forever discarded the layer of burden connected whether I would be able to live in the United States.”
Mrs. Trump has spoken warmly of her husband’s older children – Donald Jr., Ivanka, Eric, and Tiffany.
“I don't see myself as their mother,” she said, per Cosmopolitan. “I am their friend and I'm here when they need me."
Despite her high-profile family, Mrs. Trump is noted for her avoidance of the spotlight. During her husband’s first term in office, she was criticized by some for being too private.
In an opinion piece for The Washington Post, Kren Tumulty accused Mrs. Trump of keeping “a conspicuously low profile during the 3½ years of her husband’s presidency.”
“First lady is a role that comes with no job description, and each woman who has held it has defined it her own way. Some have struggled more than others,” wrote Tumulty. “Who is she really? The impressions that she allows us are fleeting and contradictory. Which leaves us to make only one conclusion: Melania Trump is a riddle that she doesn’t really want us to solve.”
Her few public appearances and statements during President Trump’s current reelection campaign have come at emotionally charged moments.
Days after the attempted assassination of the former president, Mrs. Trump asked the public to “look beyond the left and the right, beyond the red and the blue.”
“We are all humans, and fundamentally, instinctively, we want to help one another,” she said in a statement published July 14. “American politics are only one vehicle that can uplift our communities. Love, compassion, kindness, and empathy are necessities.”
Days later, Mrs. Trump appeared at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee where President Trump accepted his party’s presidential nomination.
Melania will be released on Sept. 24 – six weeks before election day, according to CNBC.
“May your experience reading my book be as enjoyable as the writing process was for me,” Mrs. Trump wrote on X on July 25.
