In September 2020, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, Melania Trump’s former friend and adviser, and the author of “Melania and Me,” sat down with BBC to explain why she believes the Trumps married for reasons outside of love. “I do believe it’s a transactional marriage,” Winston Wolkoff proclaimed, saying that while “Donald got arm candy,” Melania got the modeling career of her dreams. “The Vogue cover legitimized Melania, which legitimized Donald as well, and Melania got two dynamic decades,” she continued, adding, “I mean, she was a young model, striving, she didn’t have success yet. She met Donald. She married. She had a son. She became an American citizen. And 10 years after that, she’s the First Lady of the United States,” she said, concluding that the Trump union “was a made-for-TV moment.”
Touching on the same theme, Lady Nadia Essex, a former dating expert on British reality TV show “Celebs Go Dating,” told the Daily Star in February 2021 that it’s “only a matter of time” before Melania and Donald divorce because “there is zero chemistry between them and her body language towards him is very hostile. She clearly does not want to be in his company and often is seen bashing his hand away when he tries to hold hers,” she said, claiming, “I don’t believe either of them are happy in the relationship. I believe they live apart already and are only really married by name.”