The Paternity Scandal Melania Trump's Father Just Can't Escape

Melania Trump and her parents, Amalija and Viktor Knavs, have a tight bond. The same is true for Melania and her sister Ines, who was also her neighbor in New York City for many years. According to the New York Post, Knauss lives in a Trump Organization-owned apartment on Park Avenue. "They are very close," Palm Beach philanthropist Audrey Gruss said. The same can't be said about Melania's relationship with her half-brother, Denis Cigelnjak, a son from her father's previous relationship.

Melania has never met her half-brother thanks to Viktor denying paternity of Cigelnjak even though DNA testing had reportedly proved otherwise. Viktor was ordered to pay child support to the boy's mother until his 18th birthday, but had no contact with him. When Melania was rising to prominence during Donald Trump's 2016 campaign, she pretended not to know about Cigelnjak. However, when shown the legal documentation of Viktor's connection to Cigelnjak, she contended she had misunderstood the question. "I've known about this for years," she told GQ in 2016.

Melania showed she had no interest in discussing the skeleton in her family's closet. "My father is a private individual. Please respect his privacy," she said, cutting off further discussion of the topic with GQ. The former first lady is protective of her father, and the two grew even closer in the wake of her mother's death in January 2024. Melania has tried to keep her family out of the press, going so far as to threaten old acquaintances in Slovenia with legal action, according to Yahoo!. But that hasn't kept Cigelnjak from sharing his story.

Denis Cigelnjak received the support he needed from his mother, grandparents, aunts, and uncles, but he still wishes he had a father figure growing up. "I missed being able to say, 'Hey, Dad, let's go for a coffee,'" he told Julia Ioffe in her GQ profile. Although, in his eyes, that wasn't motivation enough to intrude in his biological father's new life, and in his conversation with Ioffe, Cigelnjak held back a lot of his feelings. That would not be the case in subsequent interviews.

Cigelnjak showed resentment when discussing how Knavs pressured his mother to have an abortion when he learned about the pregnancy. "She did not want anything from him because she was so disappointed," Cigelnjak told Slovenian outlet Planet.si in 2016 (via Daily Mail). His grandmother convinced Cigelnjak's mother that Knavs had a duty toward his son. The documents unearthed by GQ showed Knavs fought the child support case tooth and nail but eventually lost.

Even then, Knavs continued to show disregard for the boy he fathered. "It was my mother's father who supported me for 18 years as my own father repeatedly forgot to pay ... I wonder how anyone can deny their own child," Cigelnjak said. While he has frustrations regarding how Knavs handled him and his mother, Cigelnjak has shown no resentment toward Melania Trump. "I am happy for her. I am happy for everyone in her family," he told the Daily Mail after Donald Trump won the 2016 election.

Melania Trump was enraged when Julia Ioffe went digging into her family's past. "There are numerous inaccuracies in this article including certain statements about my family and claims on personal matters," she wrote in an April 2016 Facebook post. She once again expressed her desire to keep her family out of the spotlight amid Donald Trump's increased public profile. "My parents are private citizens and should not be subject to Ms. Ioffe's unfair scrutiny," Melania added.

For those who know the former first lady, her reaction was unsurprising. After all, Melania reportedly only trusts her family, even if she has the means to outsource all of her needs. "I realized that Melania was very close to her family when I saw them all there supporting her after Barron's birth," fashion designer Luisa Beccaria said in the New York Post interview. "Melania had all the professional help she needed at that point, but it was her sister she trusted."

The way Melania handled the death of her mother, Amalija Knavs, also showed how big of a role she played in her life. Ahead of her 53rd birthday in April 2024, Melania chose to retreat from the world, allowing only Viktor and her son, Barron Trump, to be around her. "She is still suffering the loss of her mother and this birthday is difficult in that respect," a source told People. "She will be with her family for a low-key celebration."