Donald Trump Was Totally Surprised When He Found Out Melania Was Pregnant With Barron

At an age when most men are well past diaper-changing and preschool playdates, then-59-year-old Donald Trump became a father for the fifth time in March 2006. He had only just married Melania Knavs a little over a year earlier, and the news of her pregnancy came as something of a surprise to him. Melania told People she broke it to her husband the previous summer. “He came home … and I told him he’d be a daddy. And his reaction was … at first he needed to take it in. It was a real surprise. And then he was very happy,” she recalled. 

The former president confirmed that children were indeed part of their plan, “[B]ut I was surprised by the speed of it. It happened very quickly.” Once the initial shock wore off, the dad-to-be already had a name in mind for his third son. As Donald told Gayle King of “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” he’d always liked the name Barron, but he wasn’t brave enough to give it to either of his other sons, so Donald and Melania agreed on the choice early on. 

For reasons the controversial politician didn’t fully elucidate, those jitters came back, and Donald tried to give Barron a name change at the last minute. Fortunately, Melania put her foot down — a tired new-mom foot, but a firm one nonetheless. After so many months of imagining a little Barron in the house, she wasn’t about to do a name-switch after the fact.