As she returns to the spotlight, First Lady Melania Trump can expect moral support from her little-known older sister.
Ines Knauss, 56, has kept a low-profile for some 20 years, but she has played a significant role in the lives of Melania and her son, Barron, the Daily Mail reported.
Melania's older sister was the maid of honor at Melania's wedding to Donald Trump and was last pictured at Mar-A-Lago in 2005. Knauss was not pictured at the funeral of her mother, Amalija, when she passed away last year.
"Melania and Ines are very close and since Melania's mother died, Ines and their father are probably the two people Melania trusts the most," an insider familiar with the first lady's thinking told the Daily Mail.
A photographer who worked with Melania in her former modeling career described Knauss as "really polite and very mellow."
The Slovenian-born sisters have a close bond, as Melania shared with readers in her best-selling memoir released last year, which mentions Ines some 30 times.
"Ines was more than just a sister to me; she was a guiding light who illuminated my path and inspired me to reach for the stars," Melania wrote.
Melania's return to the White House has prompted fresh public fascination in one of the most elegant, and elusive, of First Ladies.
Known to have a close-knit family, Melania has long prioritized parenting her son Barron, but there are indications she will embrace a more public role in her second turn as First Lady. In addition to her memoir, Melania is releasing a documentary about her life on Amazon Prime later this year.
“I just feel that people didn’t accept me maybe … And I didn’t have much support,” she recently told Fox News. "Maybe some people, they see me as just a wife of the president, but I’m standing on my own two feet, independent. I have my own thoughts. I have my own yes and no. I don’t always agree what my husband is saying or doing. And that’s OK.”
Melania's evolution was apparent during her husband's inaugural ceremony Monday, where she cut a bold figure, donning a black boater hat that concealed her eyeline.
The look projected a strong aura of self-possession as Melania prepares for a return to public life.
"The look said ‘I’m flawless and in control,’ and it showed that she’s going to do things her way this time — she won’t look back," fashion journalist and historian Nancy MacDonell told PageSix.
