The actress had studied at the Robert Fulton Junior High in Van Nuys, Los Angeles, and she then graduated from Van Nuys High School.
Her father, Dale, is of Ukrainian descent and her mother Iris is of Estonian and German descent.
Melania was born Melanija Knavs, Germanized to Melania Knauss on April 26, 1970, in Novo Mesto, Slovenia at that point part of socialist Yugoslavia.
Throughout her life, Erika has struggled with her weight and was at one point hospitalized due to an eating disorder coupled with laxative abuse.