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Who is Stephanie Winston Wolkoff? Melania Trump’s former adviser writing ‘explosive’ tell-all

Clint Spaulding/WWD/Shutterstock
Clint Spaulding/WWD/Shutterstock

There’s another Trump tell-all in the works to be released ahead of the 2020 US presidential election. But this time, the focus will be on First Lady Melania Trump.

According to new reports, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a former member of Melania’s inner circle, has written a book to be published through Gallery Books, a division of Simon & Schuster. Entitled Melania And Me: My Years As Confidant, Advisor And Friend To The First Lady, the book is reportedly set to be published on September 1.

A longtime friend of Melania’s, Stephanie received public attention following her work helping to plan Donald Trump’s 2017 presidential inauguration. After being named as Melania’s senior adviser, Stephanie’s ties with the Trumps were abruptly “severed” in 2018 following a federal investigation into the inaugural committee and its finances.

Here’s everything you need to know about Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, and the information her book will include.

(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

Who is Stephanie Winston Wolkoff?

Stephanie Winston Wolkoff grew up in the Catskills, and she is the daughter of Barbara and Barry Batinkoff. After her parents divorced, Stephanie’s mother remarried Bruce Winston, who legally adopted Stephanie (and who also happens to be the son of famed jeweler Harry Winston).

Stephanie worked as the director of special events at Vogue for 11 years before she resigned in 2009. During her time there, she was dubbed “General Winston” by Anna Wintour, and she most notably helped to produce the annual Met Gala and the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund.

(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

In 2000, Stephanie married real estate developer David Wolkoff in a glamorous Manhattan ceremony that counted Wintour as a guest. The couple has three children together.

Before starting her own agency in 2012, Stephanie worked as the fashion director at Lincoln Center when New York Fashion Week relocated there.

When did Stephanie Winston Wolkoff become friends with Melania Trump?

(Patrick McMullan via Getty Image)
(Patrick McMullan via Getty Image)

Stephanie reportedly first met Melania while working at Vogue. Prior to Melania’s move to the White House, the two would frequently lunch together, with Stephanie visiting the Trumps’ Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and Melania attending Stephanie’s 40th birthday party in 2010.

“Don’t underestimate her just because she is quiet and reserved,” Stephanie said of Melania in an interview with Dujour magazine during the 2016 presidential election.

“There is virtue in the fact that she appears to be quiet and isn’t on the front lines constantly saying, ‘Hear me, see me.’ But she’s very confident in her viewpoint.”

(AFP via Getty Images)
(AFP via Getty Images)

Stephanie and her husband were among the guests at Donald’s victory party at the New York Hilton Midtown on election night in 2016. And Stephanie worked with real estate developer Tom Barrack to organize the inauguration.

After the inauguration in January 2017, Stephanie became Melania’s first hire when she was announced as an unpaid senior adviser. As senior adviser, Stephanie confirmed Melania’s plans to move to the White House, wrote speeches and helped Melania to develop what would become her Be Best platform before she was abruptly let go in February 2018.

What happened to Melania Trump’s and Stephanie Winston Wolkoff’s friendship?

(Clint Spaulding/WWD/Shutterstock)
(Clint Spaulding/WWD/Shutterstock)

In February 2018, Stephanie’s friendship with Melania appeared to have ended when the first lady’s office announced that it had “severed” its contract with Stephanie.

The news came following a New York Times report which stated tax filings revealed that Stephanie’s company, WIS Media Partners, was paid nearly $26 million for planning the inauguration.

At the time, Stephanie had told the New York Times that she expected “to remain a trusted source for advice and support on an informal basis.”

A year later, a federal investigation into the inaugural committee was launched. When the House Intelligence Committee requested that Stephanie turn in documents from the event, it was reported that she cooperated.

Still, Stephanie has maintained that she was not fired from her position as the first lady’s senior adviser. “Was I fired? No,” Stephanie said in a 2019 statement to the New York Times. “Did I personally receive $26 million or $1.6 million? No. Was I thrown under the bus? Yes.”

What is Stephanie Winston Wolkoff’s book about?

(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

Vanity Fair reported that Melania And Me will be published through Gallery Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, on September 1.

The book is said to cover everything from the start of Stephanie’s friendship with Melania to their fallout following the 2018 New York Times report that revealed Donald’s inaugural committee paid $26 million to Stephanie’s company.

“In her memoir, Wolkoff chronicles her journey from their friendship that started in New York to her role as the First Lady’s trusted adviser to her abrupt and very public departure, to life after Washington, being an advocate for children’s and women’s causes,” Vanity Fair said a description from the book’s publisher read.

Similarly, a Google Books description of the book called it, “A revealing and explosive portrayal of Stephanie Winston Wolkoff's fifteen-year friendship with Melania Trump and observations of the most chaotic White House in history.”