Who is Melania Trump’s artist sister Ines Knauss? Maid of honour at the first lady’s wedding to Donald, she now lives two New York blocks from Trump Tower and helps raise son Barron

Dec 4, 2020

From left, Ines Knauss and her sister Melania Trump at Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida, in February 2005. Photo: Getty Images

Ines was at Melania’s side long before her journey to the White House, with the sisters both leaving Slovenia together to pursue careers in Europe’s fashion capital Milan – Melania as a model, Ines as a designer

Melania Trump is spotted with her parents Viktor and Amalija Knavs on occasion, but did you know Melania also has two siblings? She has a half-brother, Denis Cigelnjak – who has never met his father, Viktor, or his half-siblings – and a sister, Ines Knauss (the Germanised form of Knavs), who’s three years older and regarded as Melania’s best friend.

Model behaviour

Much like Melania, Ines had dreams of working in fashion and the pair moved from their hometown of Sevnica, Slovenia, to the capital Ljubljana, and eventually to Milan, Italy together in the early 1990s. While Melania pursued modelling, Ines followed in the footsteps of her factory patternmaker mother and got into fashion design. But with looks similar to those of her sister, Ines could’ve easily found success on the catwalk, according to people who knew the pair at the time.

Down to earth

Philanthropist Audrey Gruss, who lives in Palm Beach, Florida, not far from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, told the New York Post that the sisters are very close and describes Ines as an “extremely creative” and “lovely” person.