How did Donald Trump and Melania Knauss's relationship develop between 1998 and their engagement in 2004?
Executive summary
Donald Trump and Melania Knauss first crossed paths at a New York Fashion Week party in 1998 and began dating soon after, a relationship that was public-facing but intermittent through the early 2000s before an engagement in April 2004 and marriage in January 2005 [1] [2] [3]. Over those six years the couple navigated media attention, a reported brief breakup around 2000, milestones including Melania’s U.S. permanent residency in 2001 and moving into Trump Tower in 2002, and increasingly prominent joint public appearances culminating in the Met Gala proposal [3] [2] [1].
1. First meeting and early courtship : a fashion‑world introduction that quickly became personal
The origin story commonly reported places both at a Paolo Zampolli–hosted Kit Kat Club party during New York Fashion Week in September 1998, where Zampolli introduced model Melania Knauss to Donald Trump and the two exchanged numbers under circumstances that Melania later described as testing Trump’s sincerity — she asked for his phone number rather than giving hers — and he reportedly complied [1] [2] [4].
2. Dating, tabloid scrutiny and a reported split (1999–2001): public life intersects private uncertainty
Coverage indicates the pair dated “shortly after” their introduction, but their early years were punctuated by intense media attention and a brief publicized breakup around 2000 that Trump himself acknowledged to reporters, even as they continued to appear together at events; contemporaneous reporting framed the relationship as glamorous but not without turbulence [2] [3] [5].
3. Legal and domestic consolidation (2001–2002): residency and cohabitation deepen the tie
Melania received her U.S. green card in 2001, a fact frequently cited in timelines of the couple, and the two took a further step by moving in together at Trump Tower in 2002, moves that shifted their relationship from social acquaintance to a more settled domestic partnership ahead of the later engagement [2].
4. Public partnership and the road to engagement (2003–April 2004): visibility, the Met Gala and the proposal
By the early 2000s the couple increasingly appeared at high‑profile fashion and charity events together; Donald proposed on April 26, 2004 — Melania’s birthday — reportedly as they departed to attend the Met Gala that year, and the engagement drew attention both for its timing at a major fashion event and for the expensive ring Trump gave Melania, which media accounts placed at roughly 15 carats and reported on in outlets chronicling the couple’s timeline [2] [1] [3].
5. How the reporting frames motives, power and privacy: competing narratives and what remains unclear
Contemporary and retrospective accounts stress a mix of mutual ambition, image management and privacy: fashion‑circuit introductions and joint public appearances emphasize compatibility in lifestyle, while reports of a brief breakup and the heavily mediated engagement and ring feed narratives about power imbalance and spectacle; sources used here are largely celebrity timelines and profiles (Cosmopolitan, Today, Wikipedia, Business Insider), which can carry implicit agendas toward glamour or simplification, and do not settle private questions about the couple’s motivations or the full dynamics of their relationship beyond public milestones [4] [1] [2] [3].
6. Reporting limitations and alternative readings
The factual backbone of 1998–2004 is consistent across multiple timeline pieces — meeting in 1998, on‑and‑off dating with a reported split circa 2000, green card in 2001, cohabitation in 2002, and proposal in April 2004 — but these sources mainly catalogue public events and secondhand accounts rather than offering in‑depth, independently verified private testimony, so readers should weigh both the convergent timeline and the lack of access to private conversations when interpreting motives or power dynamics [4] [2] [3].