When did Donald Trump and Melania Knauss first meet?

Executive summary — Short answer with context: Donald Trump and Melania Knauss first met in 1998, most accounts say, at a New York Fashion Week event where modeling agent Paolo Zampolli introduced them; Melania has said Trump asked for her number but she instead took his and called days later, beginning their courtship ^[1]. Contemporary timelines and later profiles consistently place their first encounter in September 1998 at a party tied to Fashion Week or social events in Manhattan, though some retellings vary on the exact venue and immediate details ^[2]. Reporting across the provided briefings shows broad agreement on the year and the Zampolli connection while differing in small anecdotes and level of detail; these distinctions matter for narrative color but do not change the central fact that their relationship traces back to 1998 ^{[1] [3]}.

1. The instant that kicked off a decade-long courtship — what the timelines agree on: Multiple timeline accounts in the supplied materials converge on the claim that Trump and Melania met in 1998, with Paolo Zampolli named as the introducer at a Fashion Week–linked party in New York. The sources emphasize an early interaction in which Trump, reportedly with another woman at the event, asked Melania for her phone number; she declined and asked for his instead, later calling him and starting a relationship that led to their 2005 marriage. This core sequence — introduction by Zampolli, the number-exchange anecdote, and a call a few days later — is repeated across the provided summaries, establishing 1998 as the foundational date in their public relationship timeline ^[1].

2. Points of agreement and the small details that diverge: While the year and the Zampolli introduction are stable across the briefs, accounts diverge on the precise setting (Kit Kat Club, a Fashion Week party, or a generic party) and the immediacy of their first date. Some summaries specify September 1998 and the Kit Kat Club as the scene; others describe only a Fashion Week party without naming a venue. Another variation concerns whether Trump was separated from Marla Maples at that exact moment — several briefs mention his separation contemporaneously, adding personal context to the meeting. These differences reflect minor narrative choices rather than contradictions about the meeting year, and they illustrate how retellings often prioritize anecdote over strict chronology ^{[2] [3]}.

3. How the anecdote about phone numbers shaped media retellings: All versions supplied highlight the anecdote where Melania refused to give her number and instead took Trump’s, later calling him. This detail appears in multiple timelines and is used as a characterizing moment: it frames Melania as selective and Trump as persistent. The repetition of this scene across accounts suggests media and biographical narratives have leaned into a simple, memorable image to explain how the two connected, and that image has persisted in later profiles and retrospectives. The emphasis on this exchange is less about proving dates and more about constructing a personal origin story that media outlets and chroniclers repeatedly cite ^[1].

4. What the supplied briefings omit — why the gaps matter: The provided materials give a consistent year but lack corroborating primary documents like contemporaneous invitations, eyewitness statements beyond Zampolli’s association, or precise dates. They also do not reconcile small timing issues such as whether the meeting took place before or after Trump’s separation from his second wife, or which specific party or venue hosted the encounter. Those omissions mean that while 1998 remains the credible accepted date, the exact date and venue remain subject to varying retellings, and readers should treat venue-specific claims as anecdotal flourishes rather than independently verified facts in the supplied dataset ^{[1] [2] [3]}.

5. Final assessment — weighing consistency against narrative variation: Across the collected analyses, the consistent takeaway is clear: Donald Trump and Melania Knauss first met in 1998 at a New York social event tied to Fashion Week, introduced by Paolo Zampolli, with a memorable number-exchange that led to a call and the start of their relationship. Variations in venue naming, exact month, and contextual details do not undermine the central date but do reveal how different sources choose different storylines to frame the meeting. For questions that require finer precision (exact day, named venue), the supplied summaries do not provide corroborating primary evidence, so those specifics remain less reliably supported than the overarching 1998 timeline ^[1].