Melania Trump May Be Republishing Her Nude Photos, According to One Photographer

Other photos in Melania’s portfolio, like a girl-on-girl themed spread for a 1997 issue of France’s Max magazine, where she appeared topless in one photo and preparing to be whipped in another, also drew attention during Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Dylan Jones, who was editor of British GQ at the time and now edits the London Evening Standard, wrote about the photos in a 2023 column. “It sounds tacky now but was intended as a tongue-cheek takedown of corporate debauchery,” he said. “Not that Trump understood that, of course; he was simply pleased to have his girlfriend photographed in his own plane in a fancy magazine.”

“He loved the pictures when he eventually saw them and called the office personally to congratulate us,” Jones continued. “This was nothing less than surreal, especially as the irony of the exercise appeared to have escaped him. He was charming, though, if slightly unhinged. We even framed some of the pictures and couriered them over to his apartment in New York. For me the whole project was a successful prank, highlighting the ludicrous nature of celebrity culture in the Noughties.”

Donald Trump and Melania Knauss as they pose together before a Marc Jacobs fashion show, New York, New York, 1998.Rose Hartman/Getty Images

“It’s true,” Verglas said of Donald Trump’s delight over the photos. “I think he was very much in love with Melania, and I think it was very reciprocal at the time,” he said. “And I think he was infatuated by her beauty, and her stature, and elegance, and he was proud of these pictures. When I worked with her for Sports Illustrated, I think he was happy that she was doing well and being a celebrated top model at the time.”

“They were very happy,” he said. “I was very happy too.”

Verglas said he’d been contacted by Melania’s publisher, Skyhorse, to send photos from the British GQ shoot, Sports Illustrated, and others to feature in the upcoming book, but that he hasn’t seen an advance copy, nor does he know if any of his photos made the final cut. (Donald has admitted that he hasn’t read his wife’s book and doesn’t know what’s in there. “I don’t know, I didn’t, so busy,” he flubbed at a recent event, and “if she says bad things about me, I’ll call you all up and I’ll say, ‘Don’t buy it. Get rid of it.’”)

Though Verglas declined to specify which candidate he will vote for in the 2024 election, he sang Melania’s praises as a fashionable first lady for the ages.

“I think in terms of icons of fashion and beauty you had Jackie O, and now you have Melania,” he said. “Melania, despite what everybody can say, when you saw her at certain events, she exudes elegance and beauty, and she’s tall, and she has amazing figure, and she was always dressed impeccably at events.”

Skyhorse Publishing, Donald Trump’s campaign, and Dylan Jones’s publisher did not respond to Vanity Fair’s requests for comment.