The Most Outrageous Conspiracy Theories About Melania And Donald Trump's Marriage

Just by watching them interact, you might infer there is a shady side to Donald and Melania Trump's relationship. But while no one can ever know what really goes on between two people in private, that hasn't stopped random observers, former friends, and even business partners of the couple from weighing in with their thoughts about how strange the Trumps' marriage really is.

While many of the claims are impossible to prove, some have been disproven, and almost all have been denied by a Trump or a spokesperson, these aren't all anonymous claims. In many cases, people have gone on the record, and in a handful of cases have even been under oath, when they promote these conspiracy theories about Donald and Melania Trump's marriage. As the world reacted to Donald Trump winning the 2024 presidential election, and even after they were in the spotlight every day for a decade, some people were still wondering what is true and what is false when it comes to claims about their relationship. Here are the most outrageous conspiracy theories about Melania and Donald Trump's marriage.

While most people marry for love these days, rumors abound that Donald Trump and the then-Melania Knauss only got married because it would benefit both of them in other ways. According to Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, the former best friend of Melania's who was also involved with planning Donald's inauguration, their relationship is more pragmatic than anything else. She told CNN's Jake Taper (via HuffPo), "I do believe it is a transactional marriage in so many ways, that they both garnered so much out of their relationship ... by marrying Donald, Melania really did get to the Vogue cover model that she's always wanted to be, that supermodel," she explained. "And by marrying Melania, Donald was legitimized as trying to get away from that whole Playboy mentality that everyone wanted to characterize him as." Wolkoff said this transactional approach to marriage was one of the big reasons Melania would not be present for Donald's hush money trial in 2024.  

Melania is Donald Trump's third wife, which makes him the U.S. president who has been married the most times. On top of career and reputation improvements, Melania brought something to her husband's life that at least one of his other wives had not: she was much easier to deal with. According to Donald's friend Federico Pignatelli (via Vanity Fair), "Ivana [Trump] was an intelligent, ... very strong-minded person and very feisty. While instead, Melania ... really no fights." Of course, this would make sense if Melania really was just in the relationship for what she could get out of it.

Melania Trump made the almost unprecedented decision not to move into the White House when Donald Trump became president — at least not right away. Using their son Barron and his school schedule as an excuse to stay in New York City for months, Melania only moved to Washington, D.C. in the summer of 2017.

In "The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump" (via The Washington Post), journalist Mary Jordan claims that sometime after Donald won the presidential race in 2016, the prenup was changed in Melania's favor. She says the First Lady used her leverage "to amend her financial arrangement with Trump — what Melania referred to as 'taking care of Barron.'" Allegedly, before agreeing to move to the White House, "She wanted proof in writing that when it came to financial opportunities and inheritance, Barron would be treated as more of an equal to Trump's oldest three children." 

And it is possible she was still using this tactic during the 2024 campaign. Melania was absent for almost all of it, minus the occasional appearance, like showing up for one night of the Republican National Convention. Ron Filipkowski of MeidasTouch News said in an interview (via YouTube), "There is there was no doubt in my mind that he sweetened the prenup to get her to do the bare minimum and just go out and give one five minute interview to Fox [News]."

Melania and Donald Trump are not often seen together in public, and some claim that's their reality in private as well. Journalist Mary Jordan, author of "The Art of Her Deal," told The Guardian, "I don't know any couple that spends as much time apart. They are often in the same building, but nowhere near each other. ... She is a loner. He is a loner. They're perfectly happy to be separated."

She's not the only one to have made these kinds of claims. "They have separate bedrooms," a Trump source told Us Weekly. "They never spend the night together — ever." The source added, "Melania wants as little to do with Donald as possible." While the separate bedrooms rumor was denied by a Trump spokesperson at the time, another person would eventually make the claim — this time under oath. Adult film actress Stormy Daniels testified during the ex-president's hush money trial in 2024 that the night they slept together, Donald told her that he and Melania did not share a bedroom.

Starting in 2025, the couple may spend hardly any time together. Many news outlets reported that Melania planned to be even less active as first lady the second time around, and would not move to Washington, D.C. on a full-time basis. Supposedly, this is so she can stay near their son in New York City, but if the rumors are true, it sounds like it would not be much of a change from their normal routine anyway.

On the surface, the life of Barron Trump isn't a tragedy. However, there are rumors that he doesn't have a close relationship with his father. Allegedly, this is Melania's doing and it's what she prefers. Author Michael Wolff, who has written several books on Donald Trump and his first administration, told MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell in 2019, "[Donald] doesn't get along with his son [Barron], he doesn't communicate with his son, he doesn't — his son is effectively not at all a part of his life, even though he lives with him" (via Crooks and Liars).

While supposedly keeping Barron outside his father's orbit as much as possible, Melania is heavily involved in her son's life. "Melania will keep her hand on Barron's future just as much going forward as she has throughout his early and current school years," a source who knows the Trumps told People. "He is her world. She is proud of him, and she is the primary decision maker on Barron and his future." Considering Barron is attending NYU and his mother is staying in New York City to be near him, while Donald will be in Washington, D.C., keeping him separate from his father should be easy.

Perhaps the craziest conspiracy theory about Melania and Donald Trump's marriage is that he has one or more women who serve as body doubles for her when she does not attend an event with him. These rumors started online after Melania was pictured wearing large sunglasses and looking a bit unlike herself during Donald's first administration. People then found other similar examples, and the Melania body double conspiracy was born. 

These rumors became so widespread — they were even discussed at length on "The View" — that Donald weighed in on them himself. "The Fake News photoshopped pictures of Melania, then propelled conspiracy theories that it's actually not her by my side in Alabama and other places," the then-president tweeted. "They are only getting more deranged with time!" This was a strange way of trying to quash the rumors, since it wasn't true that any images had been altered, which just made the denial seem suspicious. 

Regardless of how weird Donald's response to the conspiracy was, the truth about the fake Melania Trump is that she doesn't exist. However, the rumors refused to go away after being debunked, and came back with a vengeance when Donald and Melania went to vote in the 2024 election (above). Melania wore sunglasses for most of the time she was inside, but there were a few photos where she took them off, proving it was really her.

Donald Trump doesn't usually seem open to listening to other people's ideas, although the main exception is said to be his wife Melania. Former White House Press Secretary Stephani Grisham told People, "...if she saw something on the news, she would call him and say, 'This is on the news. I don't like it. You shouldn't be doing this.' He did not always listen. ... But sometimes he did listen. I think of anybody in the whole White House, he listened to her the most..."

In fact, it goes further: he's supposed to be terrified of her. The couple have been together for almost three decades, and whatever the nature of their relationship is deep down, those around the couple know her power over him. Speaking of the day the Capitol was stormed by Trump supporters, Kellyanne Conway told the January 6th Committee, "I texted [Melania], please — something to the effect of, you know, please talk to him, because I know he listens to her. He reserves — he listens to many of us, but he reserves fear for one person, Melania Trump."

This might be because, of all the people in his life, Melania probably knows most of his dark secrets. As Grisham told The New York Times, "At the end of the day, she can make or break his candidacy. And at the end of the day, she could probably make or break him."

Melania Trump has had to put up with a lot being married to Donald, but according to rumors, she knows how to get back at him publicly when she is mad or embarrassed. There have been notable occasions where she refused to accompany him to events at the last minute or traveled separately from him, even though there was no obvious reason for her to do so. For a man who married a beautiful woman allegedly because she made him look good in photos, this is punishment indeed. What is the point of being photographed doing something presidential if your attractive first lady is not in the picture?

Journalist Mary Jordan, author of "The Art of Her Deal," told The Guardian, "The way she shows that she's upset with Trump is to walk away, to be invisible, and he doesn't like that. He likes the very good-looking younger wife at his side. So she cancelled going to Davos, for instance, in the first year, very abruptly. She didn't get in the car with him to go to the State of the Union, a 10-minute car ride, after there were lengthy reports about infidelities with Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal."

Melania Trump often looks miserable around Donald. There have been famous incidents of her swatting his hand away when he tried to hold hers, and then there's one of the most awkward inauguration day moments in history, when she smiled as he looked at her then immediately frowned when he turned away. This has resulted in comedians such as Roy Wood Jr. and Jimmy Kimmel joking that she hates her husband.

But people who actually know the couple have said the same thing. Anthony Scaramucci, who famously only lasted 11 days as White House communications director, told MeidasTouch, "I judge the hatred of Donald Trump by the Melania standard ... I've met one person that actually hates Trump more than Melania." Noel Casler, who worked with Donald on his reality TV show before Donald became preside, told SwagHer Magazine, "She hated him on "The Apprentice." They would come in separate cars, and she wouldn't say two words to him."

Even in on-the-record interviews, it can be hard to get any real affection out of Melania when it comes to Donald. Michael D'Antonio, author of "The Truth About Trump," once interviewed the pair. He told Vanity Fair, "He begged her to praise him [to me] as a husband ... Literally, he said, 'Tell him I'm a really good husband.' She looked at him, and he repeated himself. And she said, 'Yeah, he's a really good husband.' It was being dragged out of her."

A 2018 poll (via The Hill) found that only 18% of Americans thought Donald Trump had been faithful to his wife Melania during their then-13-year-long marriage. And if Stormy Daniels' and Karen McDougal's claims of sleeping with him are accurate, then the majority of Americans have the right idea about their marriage. But what about Melania? Well, some people claim she hasn't been faithful to Donald either. 

When asked by SwagHer Magazine if Melania has a boyfriend, Noel Casler, who previously worked with the Trumps on "The Apprentice," said, "Yes she does. His name is Hank Siemers. He's the head of security at Tiffany's. That marriage is an arrangement." Casler expanded on this claim on Twitter, writing that Melania didn't even live with Donald during the time he knew them, but with her boyfriend. 

The novelist Monica Byrne also tweeted similar claims (via Inquisitr), although she did not reveal who her anonymous source was and admitted she didn't like the Trumps. She wrote: "...word is, for many years, Melania's been having an affair with the head of security at Tiffany's in the Trump Tower lobby ... with DT's knowledge. ... Again: this is kind of obvious already to anyone with eyes. Melania looks miserable. But this would be a broader illustration of why. Also it's why she doesn't leave New York." With Melania planning to stay in New York City during Donald's second administration, it's possible this conspiracy theory will get new legs.

Melania Trump looks so miserable when she is with Donald that, after he was elected in 2016, many people started using the #FreeMelania hashtag and wrote variations of it on signs at protests and marches. It's not clear if Melania actually wants to leave her husband, but there is a rumor that they were once about to divorce and that the only thing that kept them together was him becoming president. 

Noel Casler worked on "The Apprentice" and said the pair were no longer cohabiting at that point in their marriage. He tweeted (via the International Business Times), "Melania didn't live with him in Trump Tower either, she lived with her boyfriend. We had to book the transport on 'Apprentice' finales and her pick-up was not on 5th Ave." He told SwagHer Magazine, "They were probably headed to divorce before Trump won the election."

This latter claim was backed up by the novelist Monica Byrne, who tweeted (via Inquisitr), "They had an agreement (written, I think) that if DT lost the election, they'd get divorced. But then he won. So they had to renegotiate the agreement. She is imprisoned in that marriage for as long as he's president." Even Vanity Fair, in a deep dive on the couple's marriage, noted that the gossip among their friends was that after the "Access Hollywood" tape came out, Melania got ready to divorce Donald. Of course, as of late 2024, this has still not happened.

Donald Trump married Melania Knauss in 2005 and she was pregnant with their son Barron within six months. She was 35 years old, having her first child, but what Donald was allegedly worried about was that she would still be attractive after she gave birth. A source told Vanity Fair that the couple had what seemed like a "contract" and "She promised him that everything would go back to the way it was." Allegedly, he also made it clear that she wanted to have a child, not him. The same source claimed,  "There was no 'How do you feel?' No opening of doors, making sure she didn't fall. Just 'You wanted to have a baby.'"

Her looks are clearly important to Melania too, but whether that comes from her background as a model or for a need to please her husband or a bit of both is unclear. Former White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham told People, "...I watched her go through every single photo that the White House photographers ever took of her and approve them one by one by one. I can't tell you how many times we sent stacks of pictures up to the residence and she would go through all of them. So what she looked like was a real obsession to her..."