Long before the motorcades, state dinners and carefully photographed appearances of life as first lady, Melania Trump was a young European model trying to make her way through one of the most unforgiving fashion cities in the world.
There was no Trump Tower waiting at the end of the day. No private car carried her between appointments. According to the woman who shared that chapter of her life, there were instead long days of castings, simple meals at home and evenings spent comparing stories about jobs they had — or hadn’t — landed.
That roommate was Swedish model Victoria Silvstedt.
Years later, their lives would take extraordinary and very different turns. Silvstedt became Playboy’s 1997 Playmate of the Year and built an international modeling and television career. Melania Knauss, as she was then known, eventually moved to New York, married Donald Trump and became first lady of the United States.
Yet for a period in the 1990s, they were simply two aspiring models sharing a Paris apartment and trying to get noticed. Silvstedt has repeatedly confirmed that they lived together, including while recently revisiting photographs from her early career. ELLE Sweden
A Very Different Melania
Melania was born Melanija Knavs in Slovenia, then part of Yugoslavia, in 1970. Modeling offered her a path beyond her hometown and eventually took her to Milan and Paris.
By her early 20s, Paris had become an important base for her career.
Silvstedt’s path there was different. After competing in Miss Sweden and representing her country at Miss World in 1993, she was signed by a Paris modeling agency and pursued work with major fashion houses. Victoria Silvstedt
Their paths eventually crossed.
Silvstedt has recalled that she and Melania lived in a sixth-floor apartment in central Paris, near Notre-Dame. Contemporary accounts describe it as a modest model apartment rather than anything resembling the luxury later associated with the Trump name. Le Point.fr
Silvstedt remembered Melania as quiet, disciplined and exceptionally tidy.
Years later, she called her former roommate “the perfect roommate,” describing her as clean, neat and domestic. Inside Edition
Days Could Mean Casting After Casting
The glamorous photographs from the era disguise how uncertain modeling could be.
Silvstedt has described doing roughly a dozen castings in a single day in Paris and sometimes finding that she simply didn’t fit what designers wanted. In a recent retrospective, she remembered returning to the apartment after exhausting days and talking with Melania about how their respective castings had gone. ELLE Sweden
Sometimes there were hundreds of other models competing for attention.
The roommates worked in somewhat different corners of the industry. Silvstedt has said Melania was better suited to editorial work while she herself was pursuing more commercial opportunities. But both understood the peculiar rhythm of the profession: rush across Paris, wait, present a portfolio, face rejection, and then start again.
At night, they could finally compare experiences.
“We shared our struggles,” Silvstedt recalled of those evenings. ELLE Sweden
Their Life Was Surprisingly Simple
Silvstedt’s memories also reveal an unexpectedly ordinary side of their lives.
The two women weren’t spending every night inside glamorous Paris restaurants. Silvstedt has said they often cooked at home and made simple food, including tuna salad. They visited museums and lived relatively quietly while concentrating on their careers. Inside Edition
Their apartment was reportedly on the sixth floor, and Silvstedt recalled that they avoided taking the elevator and instead climbed the stairs. Le Point.fr
For two women who would later be photographed in some of the world’s most glamorous settings, the contrast is striking.
Silvstedt has also described the intense pressure placed on models’ bodies during that period. She has spoken about being told to lose weight and change her appearance while attempting to break into Paris fashion. Monaco Life
Behind every polished photograph was a much less glamorous routine of auditions, rejection and uncertainty.
Then Their Lives Began Moving in Different Directions
Eventually, Paris became a launching point rather than a destination for both women.
Silvstedt’s career changed dramatically after Hugh Hefner offered her an opportunity to pose for Playboy. She became the magazine’s December 1996 Playmate of the Month and was named Playmate of the Year for 1997. She subsequently landed a Guess modeling contract and expanded into television and acting. Victoria Silvstedt
Melania’s next major move took her across the Atlantic as well.
During her European modeling years, she met modeling executive Paolo Zampolli, who encouraged her to pursue opportunities in the United States. She moved to Manhattan in 1996. Wikipedia
The small shared apartment in Paris was now part of the past.
An Unexpected Reunion With Donald Trump
One photograph would eventually connect their old Paris life with Melania’s new one.
Silvstedt recalled encountering her former roommate years later on a New York red carpet. By then Melania was dating Donald Trump.
The resulting photograph shows Silvstedt standing alongside Donald and Melania — an image that looks almost surreal knowing their history.
Silvstedt joked while revisiting it that the composition almost made the three appear to be together as a group, although that wasn’t the situation at all. She explained that it had simply been an unexpected red-carpet reunion with her former Paris roommate and Melania’s then-boyfriend. ELLE Sweden
It also captured just how much had changed.
The women who once returned to their apartment and discussed unsuccessful castings were now established figures being photographed at celebrity events.
From Model Apartment to the White House
Melania married Donald Trump in 2005. Their son, Barron, was born the following year.
When Donald Trump became president in January 2017, the former model from Slovenia became first lady — a role she returned to after his second inauguration in January 2025.
For Silvstedt, watching that transformation has understandably been strange.
She remembers a woman before the political identity, the security detail and the enormous public scrutiny. Her Melania was the roommate who came home from castings, kept their apartment tidy and quietly concentrated on the next opportunity.
Silvstedt has described her as intensely driven, but also reserved and composed. Vanity Fair’s account of Melania’s biography similarly notes Silvstedt’s recollection that Melania was consistently quiet as a roommate. Vanity Fair
Their friendship eventually faded as their careers carried them into different worlds.
But the photographs remain.
Two Young Women Who Had No Idea What Was Coming
Looking back, the Paris chapter feels almost like the beginning of two completely different movies.
Silvstedt would become one of the most recognizable European glamour models of her era, appearing on hundreds of magazine covers and branching into entertainment.
Melania would travel an even more improbable route — from Slovenia to Milan, Paris and New York, and eventually to the White House.
What makes their old photographs fascinating isn’t simply how young they looked.
It’s what neither woman could yet know.
At the end of another exhausting day of castings, they were still two aspiring models returning to the same apartment, eating uncomplicated meals and discussing whether anyone had bothered to look seriously at their portfolios.
Decades later, one would remember those nights as part of her journey toward international fame.
The other would become one of the most photographed women in American political life.
And for a brief period before any of that happened, they simply went home to the same little apartment in Paris.
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