Meet Melania Trump’s former best friend, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff: the former Vogue PR and Met Gala organiser wrote an exposé about Donald Trump’s wife in 2020, but what’s happened since?

Here’s how the Met Gala organiser got to know the Trump family.

Stephanie Winston Wolkoff is Melania Trump’s ex-bestie

So how did the friendship begin, anyway?

What is Stephanie Winston Wolkoff’s background?

Stephanie Winston Wolkoff used to work at Vogue

But Winston Wolkoff left Vogue in 2009 for the role of fashion director at the Lincoln Center, and later started her own agency, SWW Creative. It was during this period that she tried to strengthen her own brand, and articles about her luxury wardrobe and the galleries of her Upper East Side New York flat abounded in lifestyle publications.

She was senior adviser to the former first lady

Just after Donald’s inauguration in 2016, Winston Wolkoff joined Melania’s office as a senior adviser to the first lady – Melania’s first official appointment, according to The Washington Post. The move was seen as the first step to help Melania in her new role as first lady of the United States.

But it ultimately ended the pair’s friendship. The New York Times reported in 2018 that Donald’s inaugural committee paid US$26 million to Winston Wolkoff’s firm, as she had been hired as the executive producer and chief creative officer for the event. The firm, WIS Media Partners, was created just a month before the 2016 inauguration. After a public fallout, Winston Wolkoff resigned from her position, writing in her book that she believed she was “thrown under the bus”.

Her Melania Trump exposé

In September 2020, Winston Wolkoff released her book, Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship with the First Lady. The New York Times dubbed it the first “inside” look from someone in Melania’s inner circle.

Winston Wolkoff wrote that Melania doesn’t care about pleasing other people. She also claimed that Melania had an “operation block Ivanka” at Donald’s 2016 inauguration to ensure that his daughter did not steal the spotlight. If the friendship wasn’t already over before, the book was the final nail in the coffin.

She claims Donald Trump and Melania Trump’s marriage is a sham

Per Newsweek, Winston Wolkoff shared a video from The Apprentice depicting Donald as a family man with his doting wife waiting for him to arrive home. “Millions of Americans watched The Apprentice. Donald was a household name. He needed a woman who looked and played the part and let him be the star,” she claimed on X (formerly Twitter) in June.

As Donald’s legal battles continue in tandem with his presidential campaign, Melania has reportedly remained out of the public eye during his court battles – for the most part. Of course, Winston Wolkoff had comments to make about that, too. In an op-ed published on The Daily Beast, she called Melania a master at avoiding exposure, adding, “she’s a ruthless survivor and opportunist – willing to do whatever it takes to resort to any means necessary for self-preservation”.

However, in the aftermath of Donald’s shooting, Melania released a statement about her husband on X, praising “his laughter, ingenuity, love of music and inspiration”.