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Photo-Illustration: Intelligencer; Photo: Getty Images

Melania Trump generally stays out of politics, to the point that she sometimes isn’t seen at the White House or by her husband’s side for weeks at a time. Yet the First Lady has inserted herself into the Trump-Epstein scandal to deny one small (and largely irrelevant) element of the story that relates to her: the claim that Jeffrey Epstein introduced her to Donald Trump.

The Trumps deny that Epstein played any role in their meeting, and the only source for this rumor is the late sex offender himself — who obviously wasn’t the most reliable source. Since July, Melania has gone from subtly pushing back against the story via subtweet to obtaining retractions and apologies from the Daily Beast and James Carville for repeating it. Now she’s threatening to sue Hunter Biden for $1 billion for suggesting the rumor may be true and for floating other allegations about the First Lady’s Epstein ties that her lawyer described as “false, disparaging, defamatory, and inflammatory.”

So how did Donald and Melania actually meet? When did Epstein first claim he was involved and how did the story spread? Is the First Lady actually going to sue the former First Son? Here’s everything we know.

What have Donald and Melania said about how they met?

The Trumps have always said they met at a Fashion Week party in the fall of 1998. They told the story during a May 2005 appearance on CNN’s Larry King Live! months after their wedding.

“Were you introduced?” King asked.

“Well no, we were both at the same party and that’s how we met,” Melania said. “He came to me.”

Donald said some unidentified person was trying to introduce him to a supermodel at the party, but he asked about Melania.

“They were saying, ‘Look, there’s so and so,’” Donald recalled. “I said, ‘Forget about her. Who’s the one on the left?’ And it was Melania.”

Here’s how Melania described their first meeting in a 2016 Harper’s Bazaar profile:

In November 1998, Melania met Donald at a Fashion Week party hosted by Paolo Zampolli, an Italian entrepreneur and founder of the ID Models management agency (he later worked with Trump on several real estate projects, and was renowned for using runway models to market high-end properties). Melania was 28, and Donald was Donald: a father of four, 24 years her senior, and recently separated from his second wife, Marla Maples. (He was previously married to Ivana Trump; they divorced in 1990.) “He wanted my number, but he was with a date, so of course I didn’t give it to him,” Melania recalls of their first exchange. “I said, ‘I am not giving you my number; you give me yours, and I will call you.’ I wanted to see what kind of number he would give me—if it was a business number, what is this? I’m not doing business with you.” Instead, Donald gave her all of his numbers—“the office, Mar-a-Lago, home in New York, everything”—and told her to call. Melania then headed to the Caribbean for a photo shoot, but phoned a few days later.

On July 18, 2025, the day after The Wall Street Journal reported on Trump’s birthday letter to Epstein, Melania posted two pages from the chapter of her 2024 memoir titled “How I Met Donald Trump” on X. She did not explain why, but it certainly seemed like the post was meant to refute the Epstein introduction rumor, which started circulating again after the administration’s botched release of the Epstein files.

#1 New York Times Bestseller, “Melania” || How I Met Donald Trump https://t.co/xIfkkmL4YC pic.twitter.com/ioDucDuo9A

— MELANIA TRUMP (@MELANIATRUMP) July 18, 2025

Melania wrote that a friend invited her to a party at the Kit Kat Klub thrown by her boyfriend (these people are not named, but other accounts suggest she was referring to her friend, the Hungarian model Edit Monar, who was dating Paolo Zampolli at the time). During this soirée filled with “models, photographers, editors, and designers,” Melania Knauss encountered her future husband:

I saw my friend wave at someone behind me. When I turned around, I noticed a man and an attractive blonde woman approaching us.

“Hi, I’m Donald Trump,” the man said when he reached my table. “Nice to meet you.” I recognized the name, and I knew he was a businessman or celebrity, but not much else. He put his hand out to shake mine.

“Hello,” I replied. “I’m Melania.”

Melania wrote that Donald, “was accompanied by a beautiful date, so I initially dismissed our conversation as mere pleasantries exchanged at an industry event.” But the mogul gave her his business card and said “Call me,” and several days later she did.

Has Paolo Zampolli confirmed this?

Yes, many times. Over the years, the former modeling agent has repeatedly claimed credit for introducing the Trumps (this may mean he facilitated their meeting by inviting them both to his party, since Donald said he approached Melania).

Zampolli discovered Melania in Milan in 1995, secured her U.S. visa, and has remained close with the Trumps. President Trump appointed Zampolli to the Kennedy Center’s board at the end of his first term, and in March he named him special envoy for global partnerships.

Who started the rumor that Epstein introduced the Trumps?

Probably Epstein himself. In July 2019, a month before Epstein died in a federal jail cell in Manhattan, the New York Times reported that he had been claiming he introduced the couple since Trump won the 2016 election:

But while Mr. Trump has dismissed the relationship, Mr. Epstein, since the election, has played it up, claiming to people that he was the one who introduced Mr. Trump to his third wife, Melania Trump, though neither of the Trumps has ever mentioned Mr. Epstein playing a role in their meeting. Mrs. Trump has said that her future husband simply asked for her phone number at a party at the Kit Kat Club during Fashion Week in 1998.

Epstein’s claim was maybe plausible: In 1998 he lived in New York, was involved in the modeling scene, and was friends with Donald Trump.

However, there’s also plenty of reason to doubt it. The Trumps never publicly referred to him in the story of how they met, and there isn’t any evidence that he was at Paolo Zampolli’s 1998 party. Plus, the convicted sex offender had reason to exaggerate his relationship with the new president.

Has anyone else denied Epstein’s claim?

Yes, Melania’s friend Zampolli has insisted that Epstein was lying. On July 11, 2019, the New York Post reported that Zampolli told the authors of a recently released book on Trump that Epstein wasn’t even at his party:

After the New York Times reported this week that Jeffrey Epstein claimed to have introduced the Donald to Melania, the authors reached out to Zampolli, an envoy to the UN for Dominca, to see if Epstein had attended the fashion bash.

Zampolli’s response, in red capital letters, was “NO WAY.”

He called the idea that Epstein had introduced them “fake news. B S.”

The Post reported that, days later, Zampolli was heard exclaiming at a party, “The whole world knows I introduced” Donald and Melania!

Did Melania know Epstein well?

We don’t know. Donald once said he’d known Epstein since the late ’80s, so the men’s friendship predates Melania’s arrival in the U.S. Photos of Melania partying with Trump, Epstein, and Ghislaine Maxwell at Mar-a-Lago on February 12, 2000 have been circulating for years. And in July 2025, CNN unearthed footage of Trump, Epstein, and Melania chatting at a Victoria’s Secret fashion show on February 3, 1999, which was several months after the couple started dating.

The same CNN report revealed that Epstein attended Trump’s 1993 wedding to his second wife, Marla Maples. But Epstein probably didn’t attend Trump’s wedding to Melania on January 22, 2005, since he and Donald reportedly had a falling out the previous year.

Why did the Daily Beast and James Carville retract stories about Melania and Epstein?

On July 30, 2025, the Daily Beast deleted an article that summarized comments Trump biographer Michael Wolff made about Melania’s ties to Epstein on The Daily Beast Podcast. The story was replaced by this editor’s note:

After this story was published, The Beast received a letter from First Lady Melania Trump’s attorney challenging the headline and framing of the article. After reviewing the matter, the Beast has taken down the article and apologizes for any confusion or misunderstanding.

The video of Wolff’s interview with podcast host Joanna Coles is still available on YouTube.

Similarly, longtime Democratic strategist James Carville edited an episode of his podcast after legal pushback from the First Lady.

“After the episode, we received a letter from Melania Trump’s lawyer. He took issue with our title of one of those YouTube videos from that episode and a couple of comments I made about the First Lady,” Carville said during the August 7 episode of Politics War Room.

“We took a look at what they complained about, and we took down the video and edited out those comments from the episode. I also take back these statements and apologize,” he added.

Melania put up two posts on Truth Social highlighting the retractions from the Daily Beast and Carville.

What did Hunter Biden say about Melania?

Hunter Biden, son of former president Joe Biden, referred to Wolff’s claim that Epstein introduced the Trumps during a wide-ranging July interview on the YouTube show Channel 5 With Andrew Callaghan. On August 13, 2025 Fox News Digital reported that Melania’s attorney sent Biden a letter demanding a retraction and an apology. The letter highlighted two of Biden’s statements from the interview:

a. “Epstein introduced Melania to Trump. The connections are, like, so wide and deep.”

b. “Jeffrey Epstein introduced Melania, that’s how Melania and the First Lady and the President met. Really? Epstein made the intro? Yeah, according to Michael Wolff.”

The letter described these statements as “false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory” and said Biden must retract them by August 7, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. ET to avoid legal action.

How did Hunter Biden respond to Melania’s lawsuit threat?

In a follow-up interview with Andrew Callaghan posted on August 14, Biden gave this response to the First Lady’s demand for an apology: “Fuck that. That’s not going to happen.”

Melania Trump threatened Hunter Biden with a billion dollar lawsuit, demanding we retract our last interview and Hunter issue a formal apology. His response: pic.twitter.com/d4KYqxPcxz

— Channel 5 (@Channel5iveNews) August 14, 2025

In his full 29-minute response, Biden said he was merely citing reports from journalists, primarily Wolff, and almost dared Trump to sue him.

“I think they’re bullies and they think that a billion dollars is going to scare me,” Biden said. “If they want to sit down for a deposition and clarify the nature of the relationship between Jeffrey Epstein — if the president and the First Lady want to do that, and all of the known associates around them at the time, whatever time that they met, I’m more than happy to provide them the platform to be able to do it.”

Did Melania actually sue Hunter?

She has yet to file a lawsuit. But in an August 14, 2025 interview on Fox News Radio, President Trump said he urged his wife to take legal action against Biden.

“I said go forward,” Trump told host Brian Kilmeade. “You know, I’ve done pretty well on these lawsuits lately … and Jeffrey Epstein had nothing to do with Melania and introducing.”

Trump claimed “another person” introduced him to Melania, not Epstein, but did not name them.

“I mean I can tell you exactly how it was and it was another person actually … but it wasn’t Jeffrey Epstein,” he said.

Why does it matter who introduced Donald and Melania?

It doesn’t really. Even if Epstein did introduce the Trumps, that wouldn’t necessarily prove anything. We already know the two men were friends in the ’90s, they often partied with models, and Melania ran in the same social circle. That doesn’t mean they were aware of Epstein’s crimes.

Melania’s reasons for trying to shut down the rumor may have nothing to do with the broader Epstein questions dogging the president and his administration. No one wants people spreading untrue stories about their marriage, particularly if those rumors involve a notorious pedophile and conspiracy-theory fixture like Epstein.

Did Epstein Really Introduce Donald Trump & Melania? A Deep Dive.

Did Epstein Really Introduce Donald Trump & Melania? A Deep Dive.