Where and when did Donald Trump propose to Melania ahead of the 2004 Met Gala, exactly? Some reports have since generalized that he did it during the ball, but

Where and when did Donald Trump propose to Melania ahead of the 2004 Met Gala, exactly? Some reports have since generalized that he did it during the ball, but she was wearing the 15-carat Graff diamond ring that he would brag about getting at a discount (though the chairman of Graff later said they didn't do discounts for publicity) by the time they got to the red carpet. Besides, it can't have been during—wouldn't more people have noticed if the couple had been having a yuuuuge moment, right there?

"It was a great surprise. We are very happy together," the discreet future first lady told the New York Post.

Larry King asked the couple on his CNN show, after they got married, how the proposal occurred, but the host of The Apprentice only said, "Well, we were together five years. We literally have never had an argument; forget about the word 'fight.' We never even had an argument. We just are very compatible. We get along. And I just said, 'You know what? It's time. It wasn't a big deal. It was almost like..."

"That's the way you do it, 'You know what, it's time'?" King inquired.

"I did it a little better than that," Trump said, "without going into too much detail. But it was time. We just have a very good relationship."

She featured Melania on the cover in her wedding dress in 2005, but Vogue editor-in-chief and Met Gala chairwoman Anna Wintour made it clear in 2017 that then-President Trump was henceforth disinvited from the party.