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Stephanie Winston Wolkoff may not be a friend of Melania Trump‘s anymore, but following the news that the 50-year-old First Lady and her husband President Donald Trump, 74, contracted COVID-19, she wished them well. “America has suffered beyond measure from the COVID epidemic. I wish the President and First Lady well in their recovery,” Stephanie said in a statement EXCLUSIVELY to HollywoodLife. Since, the president has been taken to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for treatment of symptoms, including a cough and fever.
The statement comes just a day after Donald and Melania tested positive for the deadly virus — which was on the same night that Stephanie released secretly taped phone conversations she had with Melania on CNN. In one of the calls, Melania complained about having to decorate the White House for the holidays. “I’m working like a — my a– off at Christmas stuff, who gives a f— about Christmas stuff and decorations. But I need to do it, right? Correct?” she says to her former advisor, who went on to write the number one best seller book Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship with the First Lady.
“They say I’m complicit. I’m the same like him, I support him. I don’t say enough I don’t do enough where I am,” Melania then said on the call, adding a shocking comment about the separation of migrant children and their parents: “And they said, ‘Oh, what about the children that they were separated?’ Give me a f—— break.” She also complained that Barack Obama didn’t face the same criticism around immigration. “Where they were saying anything when Obama did that? I can not go, I was trying get the kid reunited with the mom. I didn’t have a chance — needs to go through the process and through the law,” she vented.
Stephanie and Melania struck up a friendship in 2003, two years before Donald and Melania’s lavish Florida wedding. The women would enjoy monthly lunches, as well as dinner dates with Donald and Stephanie’s husband, real estate developer David Wolkoff. Once Melania became First Lady, Stephanie served as an unofficial advisor to her friend until 2018 when it was reported that Stephanie’s company, SWW Creative, was paid $26 million by Donald Trump’s inauguration committee.
Notably, Wolkoff was the executive producer of Trump’s presidential inauguration. Stephanie later denied the reports, but said she was “thrown under the bus” to the New York Times. “Was I fired? No. Did I personally receive $26 million or $1.6 million? No. Was I thrown under the bus? Yes,” she said. After Stephanie’s departure, Melania sent her an email saying she was “confident” that their friendship “far outweighs politics.” The inauguration committee has been under investigation by the FBI for misuse of funds.