Melania Trump: From a town of 3000 to the White House

Mrs Trump – born Melanija Knavs before later changing her name to further her modelling career as Melania Knauss – grew up in the small Slovenian town of Sevnica, a town with fewer than 5000, nestled in the foothills of the Alps.

Her father, who sold car parts, was a member of the Communist party, while her mother was a pattern maker at a textile factory. She left the former Yugoslavia at 18 after being scouted and appearing in a fashion spread shot by a local photographer, following the feature she was signed to a modelling agency in Milan and went on to work in Paris.

"Even as a child Melania was creative, innovative and Sevnica was too small for her," Mirjana Jelancic, Melania's friend who is now a headmistress of Melania's elementary school, told Reuters.

"She was reserved and when I heard that Donald was running I said (to myself) this will be hard for her. She never wanted to be in the spotlight," Jelancic said. "She was excellent at her job (in the campaign)."

Her career highlight was appearing on the January 2000 cover issue of British GQ, when she was Trump's then girlfriend. The billionaire businessman lobbied hard to have the "lad's mag" feature his new paramour and then requested to have the images sent to his office.

"We were bombarded by requests to shoot Melania," editor Dylan Jones told The Hollywood Reporter.

"And so, given that she was obviously so keen to be featured in GQ, we came up with a rather kitsch and camp story for her to feature in."

She appeared naked on the cover wearing a diamond choker and laying on a fur rug under the cover lines: "Sex and 30,000ft, Melania Knauss earns her air miles" and "The GQ Bitch List, who we hate and why".

It was the same image Trump's rival Ted Cruz refashioned into a meme earlier this year during the Republican primaries with the slogan: "Meet Melania Trump. Your Next First Lady. Or You Could Support Ted Cruz on Tuesday."

Trump responded with this:

The inside spread featured her handcuffed to a briefcase and holding a chrome pistol on board Trump's customised Boeing 727 private jet.

The corresponding article canvassed the idea of her one day becoming first lady: "I think every woman would like to be. Why not?," she said.

Later that year she also appeared in the swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated.

Trump married Knauss, who is 24 years his junior, in 2005. Her wedding ring – a 12-carat emerald-cut diamond – is reportedly worth more than $2.27 million.

Bill and Hillary Clinton were among the 350 guests at the groom's Palm Beach estate, Mar-a-Lago.

The bride wore a Christian Dior dress worth more than $100,000, adorned with 1500 crystals. It had a 4-metre train and a 5-metre veil. It was too heavy for her to walk in so she changed into a Vera Wang silk dress for the poolside reception where the happy couple drank Cristal champagne, ate caviar and mingled with the likes of Heidi Klum and Barbara Walters.

Fast forward a few years out of the spotlight while raising the couple's son, Barron, 10, and now she's set to move to Washington and into one of the most high-profile jobs in the world.

Mrs Trump was relatively absent from the gruelling, hate-fuelled election campaign, only making rare appearances via pre-recorded television interviews filmed inside the couple's gilded apartment inside Trump Towers. She also publicly denounced her husband's "grab them by the pussy" comments, saying via a statement: "The words my husband used are unacceptable and offensive to me."

She also took a back seat on the hustings to Trump's eldest daughter, businesswoman Ivanka, until she made headlines at the Republican convention in Cleveland in July when she plagiarised parts of Michelle Obama's 2008 Democratic convention speech.

Subsequent interviewers failed to press her on the gaffe before she joined her husband in the final days of the fractious campaign and delivered a series of speeches to the GOP faithful where she outlined what she hopes to achieve as first lady.

Online bullying and ending online abuse will be her first assignment she said.

It was a pledge that was met with derision by some, including Clinton supporter Lady Gaga.

"To say u [sic] will stand for 'anti-bullying' is hypocrisy. Your husband is 1 of the most notorious bullies we have ever witnessed," she tweeted to the wife of Twitter enthusiast and president elect.

On election night she stood by her husband as he accepted the result and a call from Clinton conceding defeat.

As the eyes of the world tuned in she took her place wearing a white, silk crepe jumpsuit worth more than $4000.

It was designed by American label Ralph Lauren, the same designer Clinton wore throughout her failed bid to become the first female president.