Never-before-seen photos of Melania Trump in Slovenia

Univision Investiga was given access to images of Melania's early modeling career, as well as her parents and the factory where they worked.

Por:Univision

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Before she married Trump, Melania went by the last name Knauss.

Stane Jerko

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Melania's parents married and lived in a modest apartment in Sevnica using the housing plan from the government-run factory where they worked.

Facebook

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In 1970, Melania Trump was born in Sevnica, Slovenia, a city of 5,000 people.

Gerardo Reyes/Univision Investiga

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Amalija Ulčnik, Melania's mother, was a seamstress at the Jutranka factory when Slovenia was still part of Yugoslavia.

Univision

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Melania's father also worked at the government-run Jutranka factory as a driver.

Gerardo Reyes/Univision Investiga

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This is where Melania lived with her parents after she was born.

Gerardo Reyes/Univision Investiga

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Slovenian photographer Stane Jerko took Melania's first professional photos when she was 17. He says she never thanked him.

Univision

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Stane Jerko's photos helped Melania launch her modeling career in Slovenia.

Stane Jerko

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This is Jerko's favorite image of Melania, which he took when she was a teenager.

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Jerko described the teenage Melania as a "tall girl, slender with a good figure, long legs."

Stane Jerko

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Jerko told Univision that Melania lacked energy and "a certain charm" as a young model.

Stane Jerko

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Jerko thinks that if Donald Trump becomes president, Melania will become a fashion icon.

Stane Jerko

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During his first shoot, Jerko took Melania's measurements, which differ from those that would later appear on the Fashion Model Directory. The directory told Univision that Melania's agency provided the measurements in 2005.

Stane Jerko

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Stane Jerko said he thinks it's odd that Melania never asked for the photos he took of her at no charge.

Stane Jerko

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Blaz Vogelnik, Melania's first-year architecture professor, said Melania realized she shouldn't waste the beauty of her youth.

Stane Jerko

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Bernarda Jeklin, who once judged Melania in a modeling contest, said her best feature was her "tigress eyes."

Stane Jerko

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Diana Kosar, a childhood friend of Melania's, remembers her as very creative.

Univision Investiga

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Those who knew Melania as a young woman described her repeatedly as "ordinary.''

Stane Jerko

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Melania has a younger sister and led a quiet childhood.

Stane Jerko

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After her first photo shoot with Jerko, Melania moved to Ljubliana, where she studied architecture at university.

Stane Jerko

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Melania told the Slovenian press that she only went to university for a year.

Stane Jerko

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Conflicting reports emerged as to whether Melania graduated from college. She has removed her academic credentials from her website.

Stane Jerko

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Little is known about how Melania subsequently launched her modeling career in Europe.

Stane Jerko

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Melania went on to model in France, Italy, and later New York, where she met Donald Trump in 1998.

Stane Jerko

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In August 1997, before she began dating Trump, Melania did a shoot in Mexico and was featured on the cover of Harper's Bazaar in Spanish, which was sold in South America and the United States.

Harper's Bazaar En Español.

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In 1998, when she was dating Donald Trump but still unknown as a model, Melania paid for Slovenian reporters to fly to Paris for a press conference.

Dušan Nograšek

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Melania told Slovenian reporters in 1998 that she was one of the top 50 models in the world. For Stane Jerko, that was an exaggeration as she was still largely unknown.

Univision

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In 1996, Melania arrived in New York on an H-1 work visa, according to Italian millionaire Paolo Zampolli, who hired her.

Stane Jerko

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Melania reportedly taught her son Barron to speak Slovenian to communicate with his grandparents.

Stane Jerko

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Melania's parents live in New York but still have a home in Sevnica - the only house in the city with an American mailbox.

Margarita Rabin/Univision Investiga.