Did Melania Trump declare that she wants a divorce from Donald Trump in a 2024 "October surprise"? No, that's not true: There is no evidence Melania Trump said she wanted to divorce her husband, the former president of the United States, in October 2024 amid the presidential race. No credible news sites have reported that she made this declaration; her saying so would have been national and international news.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Facebook on October 14, 2024. It said:
Breaking News
October surprise
Melania Trump declares that she wants a divorce
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Wed Oct 16 17:31:56 2024 UTC)
There is no proof that Melania Trump made this declaration in October 2024, and the Facebook post gave none, nor did it cite any source. A search of the Palm Beach County, Florida, "official records" has zero results for Melania Trump documents, as this screenshot shows:
(Source: Palm Beach County website screenshot taken on Wed Oct 16 21:40:11 2024 UTC)
A search of the Palm Beach County, Florida, "court records" also has zero results for Melania Trump documents, as this screenshot shows:
(Source: Palm Beach County website screenshot taken on Wed Oct 16 21:42:32 2024 UTC)
The Mar-a-Lago Club, which serves as a Trump residence, is located in Palm Beach County, Florida.
An extensive search for any reports of the former first lady declaring she was divorcing Donald Trump amid the 2024 presidential election did not reveal any news stories about her making that statement.
A Google search (archived here) for keywords did not find any news reports that Melania Trump announced she was divorcing her husband in October 2024. A Google News search (archived here) also did not find any news reports about her making the declaration that she was divorcing Donald Trump.
What is an "October Surprise"? David Greenberg (archived here), a professor of history and of journalism and media studies at Rutgers University and an expert on American political and cultural history, explained what an "October surprise" (archived here) is in an article published by the university:
Now the term refers to any late-breaking major news that upends the presidential election.
He also said
By 2020, the term was being used so promiscuously that it referred to any election-related news that occurred in October.
Lead Stories reached out to Melania Trump's office and will update this fact check if a response is received.
Other Lead Stories fact checks of claims about Melania Trump can be found here and of claims about Donald Trump can be found here.
