In December 2025, social media posts on sites including X and Facebook shared images that US First Lady Melania Trump served as an escort before meeting her current husband, President Donald Trump.
According to the posts, Melania Trump began living under a man named Paolo Zampoli, who was good friends with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell. Epstein was arrested in 2019 on charges of child sexual abuse and was later found dead by suicide in his jail cell. Maxwell was convicted of child sexual abuse in 2021.
Snopes readers searched the site looking for more information about these allegations, which we determined were not supported by credible evidence. We reached out to the White House for more information but did not hear back.
Claims that Melania Trump worked as an escort before meeting Donald Trump have been circulating online since at least August 2016, when the UK-based tabloid Daily Mail published an article making the allegation. In August 2025, Hunter Biden, son of former President Joe Biden, claimed that Epstein had introduced the two in an interview on Channel 5, a YouTube channel hosted by journalist Andrew Callaghan.
However, according to the BBC and NPR, Melania Trump is suing the Daily Mail and a US blogger, who also share defamation claims, for $150 million in damages. His lawyer, Charles Harder told the BBC that the claim was “totally false.” She also threatened to sue Hunter Biden for $1 billion. According to the BBC.
Lawsuits can be viewed as SLAPP suits, a term that “Refers to lawsuits brought by individuals and organizations to prevent their critics from continuing negative propaganda.” According to Cornell University’s Legal Information Institute.
However, both Blogger and the Daily Mail settled the issues, Articles withdrawn And paid compensation to Trump, according to politics and previous reporting from Snopes. Meanwhile, in a follow-up video published on Channel 5, Biden refused to apologize For his comments, the information claims were also reported by journalist Michael Wolff, who has written 4 books on Trump’s tenure, and By the New York Times. (The Times story says that Epstein claimed he introduced the two.)
In short, there is no evidence that the claim, which comes from a tabloid with a history of spreading baseless rumours, has any basis in reality.
This rumor may sound believable because it is sprinkled in little tidbits of true information. According to reporting from today and The Times of LondonTrump actually met at a party hosted by Zampoli, a former modeling agent who represented Melania Trump in the 1990s. A 2016 profile of Melania Trump in Harper’s Bazaar and a Zampolli’s profile published by Digital Magazine Air Mail He also claimed to have introduced the couple.
Zampolli’s claim to be Melania Trump’s “escort agent” may feel somewhat comfortable given their established relationship — it’s not unheard of to moonlight as a model for sex workers. However, that claim is baseless and has no evidence to support it.
Images shared with claims sometimes include an incomplete link to a Politico article. That could be the article A 2019 story detailing Maxwell’s network of connections which mentions Zampolli. According to the article, he was involved in the Sustainable Ocean Alliance, an initiative created by the Maxwell-run charity Terramar. It is unclear how many times the two interacted.
Finally, a photo of Melania Trump with her roommate Matthew Atanian was often attached to the rumor-mongering post. It appeared in a Times London article Published in 2016. Some posts claimed that the photo showed Trump with Zampolli, and in one copypasta (The text was frequently copied and shared verbatim online), Atanian’s name was misspelled as “Matthew the Arabian”.
Bryant, Kenzie. “Say what you will about Melania Trump, but she seems 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, 20 Jan. 2025, https://www.today.com/popculture/donald-trump-melania-trump-relationship-timeline-rcna172256.
Gerstein, Josh. “Maryland judge dismisses Melania Trump’s defamation suit against Daily Mail.” Politico, 2 Feb. 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 over sex worker claims”. BBC News, 1 September 2016. America and Canada. www.bbc.com, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37253025.
“Melania Trump wins damages from Daily Mail over ‘escort’ allegations”. BBC News, 12 April 2017. America and Canada. www.bbc.com, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39575680.
“SLAPP SUITS.” LII / Legal Information Institute, https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/slapp_suit. Accessed 25 August 2025.
Staff, Snopes. “Daily Mail Reportedly Pays Melania Trump $2.9 Million in Libel Suit.” Snopes, 12 Apr. 2017, https://www.snopes.com//news/2017/04/12/daily-mail-melania-trump-libel/.
Sutton, Kelsey. “Daily Mail settles defamation suit with Melania Trump for $2.9 million”. Politico, 12 April 2017, https://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/melania-trump-daily-mail-settlement-237151.
———. “Maryland blogger settles defamation suit brought by Melania Trump”. Politico, 7 Feb. 2017, https://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2017/02/melania-trump-settles-libel-suit-against-maryland-blogger-234730.
Former modeling agent turned Trump foreign policy muse. https://airmail.news/issues/2025-2-15/trumps-mini-me. Accessed 25 August 2025.
Wamsley, Laurel. “Melania Trump lawsuit claims ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ opportunity to make millions lost”. NPR, 7 February 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, Ian Day, New. Melania’s supermodel CV is starting to look a little ragged. 23 July 2016, https://www.thetimes.com/world/us-world/article/melanias-supermodel-cv-begins-to-look-a-little-ragged-tt9s3smd2.
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