Donald and Melania Trump are said to abstain from alcohol after a heartbreaking incident in the US president’s life.
The 78-year-old secured an historic second term in the White House last week after beating Kamala Harris. But Trump and his wife Melania are unlikely to celebrating by popping the champagne.
That is because the Republican is said to abstain from alcohol after his older brother Freddy fought against addiction up until his death. Freddy had worked as an airline pilot, instead of joining the family business, but was grounded due to his struggles with alcoholism.
It led to him living in his parents’ attic providing maintenance work on the property. He died from a heart-attack aged 43.
Trump said his brother is “my biggest tragedy, my greatest teacher”. Speaking to the Hollywood Reporter, he said: “Freddy was an incredible guy, handsome, fun, everybody loved him.
“But sadly he drank and smoked, four packs a day, as much as anybody could. The alcohol just ate him away and I lost him. Every day he lectured me, ‘Look at the mess I’m in. If I ever catch you smoking, you’ll be sorry, drinking even a glass of booze because you’ll like it too much.'”
In her new memoir, which is being serialised in the The Times, Melania says she agreed to live a “healthy lifestyle” with Trump when they began dating, around 1998.
She writes: “We filled our evenings with the excitement of baseball games, football games and boxing events. We agreed on living a healthy life, evident in our abstinence from alcohol and tobacco.”
Melania says the couple soon discovered they had “so much in common”. The couple eventually wed in 2005, in Palm Beach, Florida, reports The Mirror.
They share son Barron together. Trump meanwhile has four children from previous relationships, including Eric, Ivanka, Tiffany, and Donald Jr.
Melania and Trump have been going strong for over two decades now, but she initially refused to give the businessman her number. Instead, Melania says she took Trump’s number and called him after travelling away for a photoshoot.
Although her initial call went to voicemail, she says Trump called back and the chemistry in that initial conversation was “palpable.” She writes: “We had so much in common and I had no doubts about him, but I believed in taking things one step at a time. Despite my best attempts at discretion, the public got wind of our romance.
Melania later pays tribute to Trump for making her feel like the “centre of his world”. She says that while she had numerous celebrity suitors she was drawn to his “magnetic energy”.
