Former first lady Melania Trump said she felt completely comfortable posing nude during her modeling days.
In her memoir Melaniawhich was released on Tuesday, she tells how her nude photos were put on the cover of The New York Post during the closing weeks of the 2016 presidential election.
The tabloid used the “disgusting headline,” as Melania described it: “Menage à Trump.”
“My upbringing in Europe had fostered a different perspective on nudity, a more open and accepting attitude,” she wrote. ‘We were used to beaches where nudity was commonplace, a natural and uncontroversial aspect of life.’
She noted how “attitudes toward the female body in the United States were completely different.”
Melania Trump at a Vogue event in 2000. She wrote in her memoir Melania about her nude photos taken for the French magazine Max in 1996 that were used politically against her husband.
The controversial photos came from a 1996 photo shoot by a now-defunct French fashion magazine called Max.
“The photos had never been distributed in the United States,” she recalls. “The magazine that originally published them existed long before these images were unearthed, and now they were being shared for the sole purpose of damaging Donald’s campaign.”
She wrote that the photos “were not a source of shame for me.”
‘The female form was once revered and honored in Western culture. Historically, artists produced beautiful paintings and sculptures that glorified the beauty of the female figure. Nudity was a medium through which humanity was elevated and celebrated,” Melania said.
“This feeling resonated deeply with me when I posed for Vogue during my pregnancy,” she wrote.
Throughout the book she mentions her working relationship with Vogue and its long-time top editor Anna Wintour.
Today, Wintour actively supports former President Donald Trump’s Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.
A 1998 photo of Melania Trump, showing her in a white bikini. The former first lady said she was never ashamed of posing nude but was angry that her nude modeling photos were used to damage her husband’s first presidential campaign.
“I believed then, as I do now, that women should be proud of their bodies and not be ashamed,” Melania continued.
“During my modeling days, posing nude was common and hardly scandalous,” she said. ‘To me, those images were artistic and tasteful, fitting for a publication like Max, which featured many renowned supermodels.’
But there was another problem when the photographer sold Melania’s photos to the newspaper: He originally said the photo shoot had taken place a year earlier.
“This misinformation led to unsubstantiated accusations that I had been working illegally in the United States, a claim promoted by the New York Post,” she wrote.
“Although the photographer later admitted the mistake, the damage was already done: sensational lies about me spread around the world, driven by a shameful pursuit of scandal and profit,” the former first lady added.