Who Is Melania Trump's Sister, Ines Knauss?

Born in 1970 in Novo Mesto, Slovenia, as Melanija Knavs, former First Lady Melania Trump joined her older sister, Ines Knavs, as the daughters of the family. Both sisters were raised by their parents, and both changed their last names to Knauss when they struck out on their own. When Melania was 17, she was approached by a photographer who told her she could be a model, and in 1992, she placed in a national beauty pageant, blasting her modeling career into a full-time endeavor.

When Melania set out for Milan in the early '90s to grow her career, Knauss made the move to Italy with her sister. And when the young model signed with Paolo Zampolli's modeling agency and made the move to New York City in 1996, Knauss again accompanied her younger sibling. At the wedding of Donald Trump and Melania, the bride made Knauss her maid of honor. "Mrs. Trump and her sister are very close," a spokesperson for Melania told Page Six. 

In New York, Knauss took a Trump-owned apartment on the Upper East Side, just a few short blocks from where Melania lived in her Trump Tower abode. The eldest sister never made any appearances in support of her brother-in-law's political career, but she did pop up in a speech at the July 2016 Republication National Convention, when, according to CNN, Melania described Ines as "an incredible woman and a friend."