Former First Lady Melania Trump’s mother Amalija Knavs passed away on January 9 at age 78 after an undisclosed illness. Her casket arrived in a black Cadillac hearse Thursday morning. It has been noted that Melania Trump’s seldom-seen sister is garnering attention due to the passing of the siblings’ mother and she had attended the funeral.
Meanwhile, the Trumps arrived at the church in a motorcade of black SUVs, with Secret Service and Palm Beach police accompanying the vehicles from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club, about 2.5 miles to the south.
The funeral has drawn attention to Ines Knauss, an artist and Melania’s older sister who, as of 2020, lived in a $2 million Trump-owned apartment on New York’s Upper East Side. This is the same building formerly occupied by Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump before they moved out of the city, according to Town & Country.
Back in 2016, when Donald Trump won the election, it was speculated that Melania delayed her move from New York City to the White House due to their son, Barron, finishing the school year. It’s reported that Melania’s close relationship with Knauss, both of whom grew up in Slovenia, also played a pivotal role in keeping her in town for an extended period.
“They are very close,” Palm Beach philanthropist Audrey Gruss told the New York Post in 2017. She met Knauss at a fundraiser for the Boys’ Club of New York at the Trumps’ Mar-a-Lago Âestate in 2005. “She struck me as a lovely person, and extremely creative.”
