If you've ever found yourself wondering about how Donald Trump Jr. met his wife, Vanessa Trump, you might want to sit down for a story. It all began with an introduction by the elder Trump at a fashion event.
Vanessa told The New York Times in 2006 about how she met her husband for the first time at a fashion show, and how it took three tries for them to finally recall who each other was. (The couple has been married for almost 13 years now.) At the end of that "Oh!" moment, the Times reported that Trump Jr.'s wife said something that might raise people's eyebrows.
Vanessa told the Times, "I'm at this fashion show. Donald Trump comes up to me with his son: 'Hi, I'm Donald Trump. I wanted to introduce you to my son Donald Trump Jr." She said that their conversation was stilted and short.
Later at that same fashion show, the elder Trump introduced Vanessa to Trump Jr. again, perhaps forgetting that he just did that. She said, "Donald comes back up to me again, 'I don't think you've met my son Donald Trump Jr.'"
According to the Times, Vanessa said she told the elder Trump, "Yeah, we just met, five minutes ago."
With two introductions in, the third seemed to work like a charm. According to Vanessa, two months later, she bumped into Trump Jr. one more time. She said the two talked for an hour. While she was talking to Trump Jr., Vanessa suddenly remembered who he was. Trump Jr. was, she reportedly recalled, "the one with the retarded dad."
Soon after meeting each other at the fashion party and going through three attempts to finally connect, the couple married in 2005. The wedding was reportedly a small and intimate — but opulent — affair at Trump Jr.'s father's resort, Mar-a-Lago, in Florida.
On the day of their wedding, the couple also announced that they would be expecting their first child in the coming spring. According to the profile published by the New York Times, friends close to Vanessa and Trump Jr. were surprised and caught "off guard" by the announcement. In the years to come, the couple would have two daughters and three sons.
In spite of the fame and power Trump Jr. has inherited, Trump's son's domestic life with Vanessa has been under the wraps, for the most part. In fact, if you compare Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner — and the press coverage he receives — and his daughter-in-law, Vanessa, the latter is rarely seen basking in media spotlight. (To be fair, Vanessa Trump does not work for the Trump administration at all.)
Vanessa, who previously worked as a model and studied psychology, is one of the more private members of the Trump clan. Unlike Ivanka Trump and Kushner, who seem to be in the news almost constantly, Vanessa rarely makes the headlines. Maybe she agrees with Trump Jr.'s philosophy that he shared in 2005. The New York Times interview quoted Trump Jr.'s reluctance about being in the public eye at the time.
The reason for trying to steer clear of media's roving eye, Trump Jr. said at the time, was "because, otherwise, I'm just Donald Trump's son, some little rich kid running around." Later on, however, Trump Jr. said he changed his mind about publicity. He said, "When I started working, I realized that there's an end goal, that I can use some of this. It would be like having an advantage and not taking advantage of it. That's called stupid." But while Trump Jr. opened himself up to publicity (and on social media), Vanessa continues to be the more reserved one.
