10 things you should know about Melania Trump

Set to be the US First Lady, Melania Trump brings poise and glamour to the presidency of her husband Donald Trump, and will become America's first foreign-born first lady in two centuries.

Elegant with a dazzling smile, the 46-year-old native Slovenian was at her husband's side in New York when he declared victory, a discreet source of support, out of the camera frame.
Pictures: Melania - from glam model to First Lady

She has maintained that same low-key presence throughout the long and gruelling campaign, during which she tried to humanize her husband, 24 years her elder.

"He will make a fantastic president," she said in Pennsylvania at her only solo campaign appearance, playing up the property mogul's softer side.
Pictures: Meet the new First Lady of the United States

Here are 10 things you should know about her:

1. She was born on April 26, 1970 as Melanija Knavs in Slovenia -- then part of Yugoslavia -- to a fashion-industry mother and a car-salesman father.

2. She studied design and architecture before leaving for Milan and Paris to launch her modelling career.

3. She grew up with her younger sister, and later discovered that she had an older half brother.

4. Melania met her future husband Donald Trump at a New York fashion party in 1998. Although she first refused to date him, the couple eventually began establishing a relationship and were engaged in 2004.

5. When Donald and Melania married in January 2005 in Florida, the cost of her Dior dress was estimated at $200,000.

6. In 2006, she gave birth to Barron William Trump. Their son is husband Donald's fifth child. She became a US citizen the same year.

7. When Trump announced that he would be running for president in the 2016 elections, Melania's private life was pushed to the spotlight. Her modelling work was considered racy, and one of the first controversial pictures that started circulating online was her 2000 British GQ spread that had her lying naked on a fur blanket.

8. In July 2016, Melania Trump gave a speech at the Republican National Convention, which in some parts, were found to be identical to Michelle Obama's 2008 Democratic National Convention speech. Initially claiming she wrote the speech, Trump was lambasted by the media and the public for plagiarism.

9. Melania will be America's first foreign-born first lady since Louisa Adams, wife of John Quincy Adams, who was president from 1825-1829. Adams was born in England.

10. Melania is fluent in five languages: Slovenian, English, French, Serbian and German.

With inputs from AFP