President Donald Trump and first lady Melania won’t be in attendance at this year’s Met Gala. But the event ― an A-list fundraiser benefitting the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute ― holds special significance for the couple, who got engaged on the night of the ball back in 2004.
Thirteen years ago, on April 26, 2004, Trump proposed to Melania with a 15-carat, emerald-cut diamond ring worth $1.5 million (though Trump told The New York Times he only paid half as much for it).
“It was a great surprise. We are very happy together,” Melania told the New York Post of the engagement at the time.
During an appearance on “Live with Regis and Kelly” days after the proposal, Trump shared a similar sentiment.
“Well, we’ve had a great relationship, we’ve been together for five years and it was really time,” he said. “And you know Melania is a great woman, a great person and I’m really happy about it.”
Trump met Melania, his third wife, at a Fashion Week party in 1998, although he was dating someone else at the time.
“He wanted my number, but he was with a date, so of course I didn’t give it to him,” the first lady recalled in a 2016 Harper’s Bazaar interview. “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.”
Trump gave her all of his numbers. She gave him a call days later and was “struck by his energy.”
The Trumps were married on Jan. 22, 2005 at his Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Beach, Florida in front of famous faces such as P. Diddy, Heidi Klum, the Clintons, Barbara Walters and Simon Cowell. They celebrated their 12-year wedding anniversary this year.
H/T Yahoo! Style
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