Donald Trump is once again moving into the White House. As of Wednesday morning, networks such as CNN and Fox, as well as news agencies such as the Associated Press, have all called the election for the controversial politician, who held his victory speech late Tuesday with his wife, Melania Trump, by his side.
The build-up to the election has been quite different for the husband and wife duo when compared with 2016 and 2020. Melania was barely seen with her husband for the entirety of this presidential campaign, instead remaining in New York City.
Just what will happen moving forward regarding her moving back into the White House again or not, only time will tell. Interestingly, a debate about whether Melania Trump was really at her husband’s side when Donald cast his vote for the 2024 election has taken the internet by storm. Was it a body double? Well, some say there’s one detail that proves so.
Late Tuesday evening, many television networks and newspapers began projecting President-elect Donald Trump as America’s 47th president. Now it’s done.
He becomes only the second-ever President to win two nonconsecutive terms, and in January will return to the White House once more. Early Wednesday, Trump addressed his supporters from Florida, thanking them for their support.
Donald Trump praised wife Melania Trump during victory speech
“We have a country that needs help, and it needs help very badly. We’re going to fix our borders, and we’re going to fix everything about our country,” Trump said. He added a promise to the American people that “every single day I will be fighting for you,” continuing to claim it would be the “golden age of America.”
Trump was surrounded by his close family, including his wife, Melania Trump, and his children. He and Melania’s son, Barron Trump, just turned 18 and voted for the first time in the election. In his speech early Wednesday, Trump praised Melania, calling her memoir the top-selling book in the country.
“She works very hard to help people. So, I just wanted to thank her,” Trump said.
Melania was at her husband’s side during his past presidential campaigns, but in 2024, it was a whole different story. The former POTUS released her memoir earlier this year, and in its pages openly disagreed with her husband’s stance on abortion, stating that she supported women’s reproductive rights.
“It is imperative to guarantee that women have autonomy in deciding their preference of having children, based on their own convictions, free from any intervention or pressure from the government,” Melania wrote in her memoir Melania.
Why Melania Trump has been absent from Donald Trump’s presidential campaign
“Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her own body?” she added. “A woman’s fundamental right of individual liberty, to her own life, grants her the authority to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes.”
After her husband lost to President Joe Biden in the 2020 race, Melania largely retreated from the public eye. She has remained absent from Donald Trump’s public endeavors, including most of his most recent presidential campaign.
What she’s been up to instead was on many people’s minds, not least Trump voters. During a town hall meeting in February, Fox News Host Laura Ingraham asked Donald if Melania would join him at his rallies. Trump explained that Melania’s dedication lay with their son, Barron.
“They love her, I’ll tell you,” Trump responded. “And you know her. She’s a very brilliant person. She speaks many languages, the whole thing.”
“Her life revolves around that boy, [he’s] so important to her. At the same time, it also revolves around our country and the success of our country. She’s raised a lot of money for charity.”
Barron Trump began his first year at New York University in September. That is reportedly why Melania hasn’t been with her husband on the campaign trail; instead, she has focused on supporting her son.
Melania Trump “not likely” to use White House as primary residence, source says
The former and future First Lady has barely spoken about her husband and his presidential campaign, and many have wondered whether she will accompany him to the White House.
People Magazine spoke to sources “in Melania’s orbit” about it.
“If Melania becomes first lady again, of course people expect her to move into the White House and perform appropriate duties,” a source close to the Trump family said, adding that Melania isn’t keen on relocating to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
“She will have her private living apartment there, and she has her home in New York, and her home at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach. She will spend time in all of these places,” the source added, concluding that it’s “not likely” that the White House will be her primary residence.
In the end, on election day, Melania Trump finally appeared by her husband’s side when they went to cast their vote at the Morton and Barbara Mandel Recreation Center in Palm Beach, Florida.
Social media users were quick to comment on Melania’s lack of enthusiasm for being back in the spotlight, with one claiming that she even looked as if she was “attending a funeral.”
Body language expert says Melania Trump looked “solemn”
It wasn’t only social media users on X that had a say about Melania. Body language expert Judi James told the Mirror that Melania’s election day look was very different from her past styles.
“By Melania’s normal standards this is a very subdued, down-played look as she accompanies her rather low-energy-looking husband with his slumped shoulders and face partly-covered by a baseball cap to cast their votes,” Judi told the Mirror. “Her smile seems almost compensatory here as Trump’s facial expression is rather solemn and he graciously and gallantly motions for her to walk in first.”
The body language expert continued: “Melania’s FLOTUS looks tended to be high-vis numbers that became increasingly tailored, high-status power-suits towards the end of their term, so this casual shirt dress with her hair softly flowing to the side has no echoes of that previous stint. The Trump’s mood here might have been self-described as ‘confident’ but that sentiment is not reflected in their body language in these photos.”
So, Melania might not have looked enthusiastic about being back in the spotlight. But according to a new theory, she wasn’t even there at all. The internet went wild over a quite absurd theory that claimed it was, in fact, a body double.
‘Fake Melania Trump’ theory floods social media
Melania Trump wore a chic Christian Dior black-and-white polka dot dress, the same she wore for her Fox News interview in September to promote her memoir. However, as Medias Touch editor Ron Filipkowski shared a clip with Melania stating that she had “been wearing sunglasses inside all day today,” the conspiracy theories began spreading,
Some claimed she had been swapped with a body double for the cameras. “This is absolutely, categorically not Melania,” one X user wrote, as per Daily Mail. “This imposter’s been wearing sunglasses indoors all day.”
A second said: ‘How is a man who walks around with a fake wife even a contender for president?’ Another X user claimed: “The check didn’t clear in time for the real Melania to make an appearance, so they had to bring the doppelganger off the bench.”
As reported by the Daily Beast, another user stated that several details ‘proved’ it was a “fake Melania.”
“Rings missing, wrong nail style & length, no smile lines in the jawline [or] lower cheek, bust is half the size it should be,” one stated, while another said that the woman in the video looked “20 years younger” than Melania Trump.
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Rare facts about the astonishing Melanie Griffith
Melanie Griffith’s life has been quite a rollercoaster. The iconic actress, daughter of actress Tippi Hedren, made her debut on the screen at age 12 – and since then, she’s starred in several big productions.
While Melanie Griffith’s career kept rolling, her private life was very much in focus. She’s been married three times – including to Antonio Banderas – been in rehab, and raised three children.
Melanie Griffith’s children from her first two marriages – Alexander Bauer and Dakota Johnson – had a pretty rough upbringing, especially considering that they had to go through having a mother who was in a terrible place at the time…
Melanie Griffith really had something in the ’80s. She was erotic and sexual in a way that European actresses sometimes are and American actresses almost always are not. And she could act, even though I don’t think Melanie ever truly realized her potential.
I loved her in the movie Working Girl and Paradise!
She was born on August 9, 1957, in New York City to parents Peter Griffith and superstar actress Tippi Hedren, most commonly known for her role in the Hitchcock classic, The Birds.
In hindsight, Griffith’s life has been rather incredible. However, it’s been tragic at the same time. The famous actress, who became known for playing strong-but-sexy characters, has been involved in a car accident, battled with drinking problems, and went through three divorces.
From the start of her life, she was exposed to the pressure of a life in show business. Her mother, Tippi, was, as mentioned, a superstar, and her childhood was extravagant in a very special way – even by Hollywood standards.
When Griffith was seven years old, her mother married agent and producer Noah Marshall. After coming back from a trip to Africa, the couple decided to make a film about lions. An animal trainer gave them a unique idea: to get to know the big cat better, they could welcome one into their home.
So, Melanie Griffith grew up with a pet lion, living with them in the 1970s at their home in Los Angeles, California.
”I grew up with lions, tigers, and two elephants,” Griffith said.
The pet lion, Neil, lived together with the family. Life Magazine documented the extraordinary event, with pictures showing Hedren resting on Neil’s back. The lion even slept under blankets in Melanie Griffith’s bed.
”It was stupid beyond belief,” Griffith later explained.
Even though she wasn’t involved in any incidents with Neil, years later, in another encounter, things didn’t end that well.
Met Don Johnson at 14
Melanie Griffith starred in her first commercial before she turned one. She continued to do commercials and modeling work for some years, and at 12, she made her debut in Extra!, even though she was uncredited.
At the age of 14, she appeared in The Harrad Experiment, and on set, she met her first big love. Griffith met actor Don Johnson on set, and the two fell madly in love. At the time, however, their age difference was somewhat controversial. Don Johnson was 22 at the time – eight years older than Melanie – but their love for one another didn’t stop them.
”I thought he was the most beautiful person I’d ever seen,” Griffith said.
Her mother feared for the two because of her age but eventually gave in. At 15, Melanie Griffith moved in with Don Johnson, and on her 18th birthday, the two got engaged.
”They were two beautiful, wonderful people, and here, my daughter was showing signs that I had never seen before in her, with an older man, and there was just sheer panic,” her mother, Tippi Hedren, recalled.
Griffith and Johnson tied the knot in Las Vegas in 1976. And, after just six months of marriage, the two split. However, they would rekindle their romance later on, exchanging vows a second time in 1989.
Melanie Griffith lion accident
Melanie Griffith started her promising acting career in the 1970s, starring in films such as Night Moves and Joyride.
In 1981, Melanie Griffith starred in the film Roar. Even though her mother and stepfather raised lions to shoot a film, things turned out ugly on the set of Roar. It was very dangerous being in front of the camera, and Melanie got injured.
She was mauled near the eye, and she feared losing her sight. She needed plastic surgery, while her mother Tippi Hedren contracted gangrene and needed skin grafts, according to a piece in the New Yorker.
As reported by The Guardian, Melanie Griffith said that the lioness ”didn’t mean to hurt me. Just, after seven years growing up with the lions, I forgot you have to be careful. You can never be sure you’re safe, and just a blow can pop your head like a ping pong ball.”
Melanie Griffith came through the scary incident. She continued to star in movies, however, without any live wild animals. She appeared in Body Double, Something Wild, and The Working Girl, among others, with the last one earning her an Academy Award nomination in 1989.
In the 1980s, Melanie Griffith also found love for the second time. She married actor Steven Bauer in 1981, and four years later, they welcomed a son, Alexander Bauer.
Melanie Griffith – daughter Dakota Johnson
Their relationship lasted until 1989 when the couple divorced – with Griffith finding love in Don Johnson again. They divorced again in 1996, after welcoming daughter and now actress Dakota Johnson in 1989.
”You have to understand that we have a tie, and I love him,” Melanie Griffith said and added:
”I will always love [Don Johnson]. But just because you love someone doesn’t necessarily mean that you can live with them.”
Dakota Johnson has become a prominent actress, starring in Fifty Shades of Grey and The Social Network. But because her parents divorced when she was only seven years old, she had a turbulent childhood. She moved around plenty, went to several different schools, and was even homeschooled for a while.
She was often hanging around her parents on film sets from a young age. It made her want to become an actress as well, which she did.
However, the childhood of Dakota Johnson was also filled with much trouble because of her family situation. As a result, she started to go to therapy at age three.
“The whole shebang,” Dakota Johnson told Vogue. “All the help you can get.”
Melanie Griffith – marriage to Antonio Banderas
”I was so consistently unmoored and discombobulated, I didn’t have an anchor anywhere, I never learned how to learn the way you’re supposed to as a kid. I thought, ‘Why do I have to go to school on time? What’s the point when you’re living in Budapest for six months while your stepdad films Evita and you go to school in your hotel room?’ I was a disaster, and I thought for so long that there was something wrong with my brain. Now I realize that it just works in a different way.”
Dakota Johnson’s childhood could’ve become the thing that put her on the wrong foot. However, a new person soon entered her life, who changed everything. Just as she mentioned, she needed an anchor. And that was precisely what she got in her stepfather, Antonio Banderas.
In 1996, the same year as Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson split, Banderas also went through a divorce with Ana Leza, whom he’d been married to for nine years. He had long admired Melanie Griffith after seeing her in Gone Girl and on the red carpet at the Academy Awards.
“The first time I went to the Academy Awards after we got a nomination for Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, we got on the red carpet, and I saw this blonde woman, and I knew her because I saw movies of her, but I didn’t remember [her name] at the time,” Banderas told Vulture.
“So, I said to [director Pedro Almodóvar] ‘Who is she? Who is she? What is her name?’ Pedro said, ‘That’s Melanie Griffith!’ I said, ‘That’s it. Oh my God.’ Six years later, I was married to her.”
Dakota Johnson’s relationship with stepfather Antonio Banderas
The two met while filming the comedy film Two Much in 1995, and they had one actual thing in common. Both were unhappy in their marriages – and Banderas and Griffith recognized each other’s situations.
Antonio Banderas instantly felt an attraction to Melanie Griffith when working together. He thought she was funny, generous, sweet, and beautiful, and after Two Much, the two stayed in touch. In May 1996, the two tied the knot and welcomed daughter Stella later the same year.
Not only did Antonio Banderas become a father to Stella, but the well-respected actor also became a stepfather to Alexander – from her second marriage to Steven Bauer – and Dakota Johnson.
For both Alexander and Dakota, Antonio Banderas became vital, as they finally got a stepfather who was there for her all the time.
In the beginning, however, Banderas explained that it was difficult for the children to accept him because they didn’t know how long he’d stick around.
“I was totally inexperienced. Suddenly I had a 6-year-old girl, a 10-year-old boy, and Stella came along almost immediately,” he told AARP. “I was, ‘Oh, my God!’ But as soon as the kids knew that I was there to stay, they were fine. They needed solid ground in which they could grow. As soon as I realized that, I started establishing my relationship, giving them security, little by little doing the father thing.”
Changed Dakota Johnson’s life
Dakota and Alexander realized that Antonio Banderas was not a temporary man. He took on the role of their stepfather and helped them in any way possible.
For Dakota, this was especially important. Her childhood had been more than stressful and uncertain. In Banderas, she got a stepfather that taught her many things, including “true passion and discipline.”
In 2011, he revealed that the kids call him “Paponio, “which is a mix of “Papa” and “Antonio.”
During an award ceremony in 2019, when Antonio Banderas received the Hollywood Actor Award, Dakota Johnson and Melanie Griffith presented him with the trophy.
”I come from a family of many a marriage, and I got very lucky,” Johnson said in her speech.
”I got a bonus dad who I realized that, over time, is actually one of the most influential people in my whole life. When I was six years old, my mother married a man who brought an unbelievably bright light, a whole new world of creativity and culture, and one remarkably magical little sister into our family.”
”He loved my mother, and my siblings and I so big, and so fiercely and so loud, that it would change all of our lives together,” Dakota added in her speech.
Strong bond to this day
The relationship between Antonio Banderas and his stepchildren continued to be strong even after he and Melanie Griffith divorced in 2014.
Even though Melanie Griffith and Antonio aren’t married anymore, their family bond will forever be strong. As of today, Banderas is in a relationship with Nicole Kimpel. But as soon as he is in Los Angeles, he makes sure to spend time with his stepchildren and ex-wife.
The divorce between the two in 2014 wasn’t dramatic at all, for which his stepchildren were very grateful, Banderas explained.
He added that he will always cherish the time he and Melanie had together – and that he always will love her. And regarding his stepdaughter, Dakota Johnson, he is like her biological, very proud father.
“I remember those years as very effervescent and really beautiful. I am not married with Melanie anymore, but she is my family. She is probably one of my best friends, if not the best friend that I have. My family is there, Dakota [Johnson], Little Estella and Alexander,” Antonio Banderas told Vulture in 2019.
”I met her when she was five years old,” he added. “I followed every single step of it. I’m so proud of her. I saw her the other day in Toronto, and she looks — as I said in the social networks when I put a picture of her and myself, I put there, ‘My radiant Dakota.’”
Melanie Griffith today
At 65, Melanie Griffith is happily single. Her last appearance on the big screen was in 2020, when she had a minor role and co-starred alongside her daughter Dakota in The High Note.
Today, she devotes her time to her family, and according to BestLife, Melanie is currently writing her memoir. And there will probably be a lot to pen down – including her battle against cancer.
The actress was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2010, and eight years later, she revealed that she had been diagnosed with cancer.
Doctors had to remove a cancerous cell on her nose, the whole event took a toll on Melanie.
“It’s a scary thing when you’re an actress and you depend on your face for work,” the actress told InStyle and continued:
“But I realize I have to put a Band-Aid on it, and it’s fine. I just look like a dork.”
Luckily, everything went fine in the end – Melanie is now a loud advocate of cancer and also supports the efforts of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
You can say what you want about Melanie’s looks and her turbulent life, but she does seem to have a really sweet soul!
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