Which publication first ran Melania Trump's nude photos and when were they published?
Executive summary
Melania Trump posed nude in at least two published photo shoots during her modeling career: a 2000 British GQ shoot (often described as a cover/profile featuring her on a sheepskin rug and aboard a customised Boeing 727) and earlier magazine work in the 1990s that has been variously attributed to French men’s magazines; major reporting and archives cite the British GQ feature as the widely referenced publication tied to the nude images [1] [2] [3]. Social-media and international TV attention to those images re‑surfaced around 2016 and again in 2024–2025, including Russian state TV rebroadcasting images after the 2024 U.S. election, according to multiple outlets [3] [4] [5].
1. The original published shoots: British GQ in 2000 and modeling work in the 1990s
Reporting traces the most prominent nude images to a British GQ profile that ran around 2000, showing Melania (then Melania Knauss) reclining on furs and photographed aboard a private plane — images widely described as the “nude shoot” referenced in later coverage [1] [2]. Other accounts and some retrospectives place additional nude or topless modeling photos in the mid‑ to late‑1990s across European men’s magazines; one timeline-style piece names a 1996 MAX magazine spread as part of that archive, though that specific citation appears in a non‑mainstream source in the set provided [6].
2. Which publication “first ran” the photos — what sources actually say
Among mainstream sources in the provided set, British GQ is repeatedly cited as the magazine that published the most talked‑about nude profile of Melania in the year 2000; Vanity Fair and GQ’s own site describe that 2000 GQ feature and photographer Antoine Verglas’s involvement in shoots spanning the late 1990s and early 2000s [2] [1]. Other claimants — for example, references to MAX in 1996 — appear in less authoritative timelines and are not corroborated by the higher‑profile pieces supplied here [6]. Available sources do not mention a single definitive “first” publisher beyond the widely cited British GQ profile [1] [2].
3. Dates and public re‑emergence: publication vs. resurfacing
The concrete date most reliably referenced in these sources for the prominent nude pictures is 2000, tied to the British GQ shoot [1]. The images resurfaced in the public eye during Donald Trump’s presidential runs and afterwards — with renewed circulation online and on international TV in 2016 and notably again in November 2024, when Russian state television aired photographs and Western outlets reported on that broadcast [3] [4] [5]. That rebroadcasting, not a new publication of the originals, is what drove much of the later news coverage [3] [4].
4. Competing accounts and gaps in the record
There are competing accounts about earlier magazine placements and specific photographers: some timelines assign images to a 1996 MAX feature photographed by Alé de Basseville, but those assertions are not supported by the higher-profile reporting in this set [6]. Vanity Fair and GQ reporting emphasize Antoine Verglas’s shoots and the 2000 GQ feature; those mainstream sources do not confirm the MAX 1996 claim [2] [1]. Therefore, while multiple outlets agree a nude GQ shoot exists from about 2000, available sources do not clearly settle whether an earlier printed publication first ran other nude images.
5. How the images were used later — media, politics and context
The images’ reappearance in political contexts — notably Russian state TV using them in 2024 coverage and social media conversations tying the images to geopolitical messaging — illustrates how archival celebrity photos become political signals years after publication [3] [4]. Fact‑checkers treated the Russian airing as real footage compiled from program clips, and multiple news outlets reported it as such [4] [3]. Claims that a specific outlet “first” released certain sets beyond the GQ feature are present in less authoritative or user‑generated pages and are not corroborated by the mainstream sources provided [7] [8] [6].
6. Bottom line and limitations of the available reporting
The strongest, best‑sourced claim in the material provided is that British GQ published the prominent nude profile around 2000 [1] [2]. Assertions of a 1996 MAX publication and other first‑run claims appear in less authoritative pieces and are not corroborated by Vanity Fair, GQ, Newsweek or the fact‑checks in this set [6] [2] [1] [4]. If you need definitive archival verification of an earlier “first run,” that specific documentary evidence is not found in the current reporting; a search of original magazine archives or primary publishing records would be required.