Breaking down rumor Melania was an escort before meeting Trump at Ghislaine Maxwell party

Social media posts on sites in December 2025 to contain X and Facebook She shared images claiming that US First Lady Melania Trump worked as an escort before meeting her current husband, President Donald Trump.

According to the posts, Melania Trump began working as an escort with a man named Paolo Zampolli, who was close friends with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and his partner Ghislaine Maxwell. Epstein was Arrested on child sex trafficking charges in 2019 and was later found dead by suicide in his prison cell. Maxwell was Convicted of child sex trafficking in 2021.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=122243189684255019&set=pcb.122243189810255019

Snopes readers searched the site to find more information about these claims, which we determined were not supported by credible evidence. We reached out to the White House for more information but did not hear back.

The claim that Melania Trump worked as an escort before meeting Donald Trump has been circulating online since at least August 2016, when the UK-based tabloid Daily Mail published an article revealing the claim. In August 2025, former President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, He claimed that Epstein introduced the two inside report Open channel 5A YouTube channel run by journalist Andrew Callaghan.

However, according to the law BBC And NPRMelania Trump filed a lawsuit against the Daily Mail and a blogger in the US who also shared the defamation claim, demanding $150 million in damages. lawyer, Charles Harder told the BBC the claim was a “complete lie”. He also threatened to sue Hunter Biden for $1 billion in damages. According to BBC.

The lawsuits may be viewed as SLAPP lawsuits, a term that refers to “It refers to lawsuits filed by individuals and organizations to deter their critics from continuing to generate negative publicity.” According to the Cornell University Legal Information Institute.

However, both the blogger and the Daily Mail settled the cases. withdrew the articles paid compensation to Trump Policy and previous reporting Snopes. Meanwhile, in a follow-up video broadcast on Channel 5, Biden refused to apologize In his comments, he claimed that the information was also conveyed by journalist Michael Wolff, who wrote 4 books about Trump’s term in office, by New York Times. (The Times’ story says that Epstein allegedly introduced the two.)

In summary, there is no evidence that the claim coming from a tabloid that spreads unfounded rumors is based on fact.

The rumor may have seemed credible because it was interspersed with snippets of factual information. According to the report from Today And Times of LondonThe Trumps actually met at a party hosted by Zampolli, a former modeling agent who represented Melania Trump in the 1990s. A. 2016 profile of Melania Trump in Harper’s Bazaar and one Zampolli’s profile has been published by digital magazine Air Mail He also claimed that he introduced the couple.

Zampolli’s claim that she is Melania Trump’s “escort agent” may seem somewhat counter-intuitive given their deep-rooted connection — it’s not unheard of for sex workers to moonlight as models. However, this claim is unfounded and there is no evidence to support it.

Images shared with the claim sometimes included a missing link to an article on Politico. It could be the text 2019 story detailing Maxwell’s network of connections He mentioned Zampolli. He is reportedly involved with the Sustainable Oceans Alliance, an initiative created by a Maxwell-run charity called TerraMar, according to the article. It’s unclear how often the two interact.

Finally, the photo of Melania Trump with her roommate Matthew Atanian that was often added to the spread of the rumor was legitimate. It turned out somehow Times of London article Some posts claimed that the photo showed Trump with Zampolli. in one copy pasta (the text was repeatedly copied and shared verbatim online), Atanian’s name was misspelled as “Matthew Arabian”.

Sources:

Bryant, Kenzie. “Say What You Will About Melania Trump, But She Looks Like a Great Roommate.” Vanity Fair, 18 June 2020, https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2020/06/melania-trump-biography-revelations.

Daily. “Melania Trump – An Apology.” Mail Online, 12 April 2017, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/~/article-4404142/index.html.

“Donald and Melania Trump: A Timeline of Their Relationship.” TODAY.Com, January 20, 2025, https://www.today.com/popculture/donald-trump-melania-trump-relationship-timeline-rcna172256.

Gerstein, Josh. “Maryland Judge Rejects Melania Trump’s Defamation Suit Against Daily Mail.” Politico, 2 February 2017, https://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2017/02/melania-trumps-libel-suit-daily-mail-234578.

“Melania Trump Sues Daily Mail and US Blogger for $150 Million Due to Sex Worker Allegations.” BBC News, 1 September 2016. USA and Canada. www.bbc.com, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37253025.

“Melania Trump Earns Damages from Daily Mail for Alleging ‘Escort’.” BBC News, 12 April 2017. USA and Canada. www.bbc.com, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39575680.

“Team SLAPP.” LII / Legal Information Institute, https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/slapp_suit. Access date: 25 August 2025.

Staff, Snopes. “Daily Mail Reportedly Paid Melania Trump $2.9 Million in Settlement in Defamation Case.” Snopes, April 12, 2017, https://www.snopes.com//news/2017/04/12/daily-mail-melania-trump-libel/.

Sutton, Kelsey. “Daily Mail Settles Defamation Suit Against Melania Trump for $2.9 Million.” Politico, April 12, 2017, https://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/melania-trump-daily-mail-settlement-237151.

———. “Maryland Blogger Settles Melania Trump’s Defamation Lawsuit.” Politico, 7 February 2017, https://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2017/02/melania-trump-settles-libel-suit-against-maryland-blogger-234730.

Former Modeling Agent Became Muse of Trump’s Foreign Policy. https://airmail.news/issues/2025-2-15/trumps-mini-me. Access date: 25 August 2025.

Wamsley, Laurel. “Melania Trump Lawsuit Argues Lost ‘Once in a Lifetime’ Chance to Make Millions.” NPR, February 7, 2017. Politics. NPR, https://www.npr.org/2017/02/07/513970871/melania-trump-lawsuit-argues-once-in-a-lifetime-chance-to-make-millions-is-lost.

York, Iain Dey, New. Melania’s Supermodel CV Is Starting To Look A Little Messy. 23 July 2016, https://www.thetimes.com/world/us-world/article/melanias-supermodel-cv-begins-to-look-a-little-ragged-tt9s3smd2.