'She didn't want this': 'Unsuited, unprepared' Melania Trump still ambivalent about being first lady

First Lady Melania Trump has only haltingly warmed to her role in President Donald Trump's administration and still seems "very much alone in her position' with a bare-bones staff and little in the way of an agenda, said Vanity Fair on Sunday.

“This isn’t something she wanted and it isn’t something he ever thought he’d win,” said a longtime friend of Mrs. Trump to Vanity Fair's Sarah Ellison. “She didn’t want this come hell or high water. I don’t think she thought it was going to happen.”

Ellison said, "There may never have been a First Lady less prepared for or suited to the role."

The White House's East Wing -- which traditionally houses the first lady and her staff -- is "sparsely inhabited" under Mrs. Trump. She has a staff of nine, half the number employed by First Ladies Laura Bush and Michelle Obama.

In spite of arriving -- almost against her will -- in such a public position, said Ellison, "much of Melania Trump’s life has remained in the shadows. She is the keeper of many of her husband’s secrets, and one can imagine that what binds the two of them together is that he may very well be the keeper of some of hers."

The first lady's friends are "divided when it comes to how she feels about her husband," Ellison reported. "One told me that it is 'old news' that she and her husband live essentially separate lives."

After Mrs. Trump batted the president's hand away when he tried to hold hands with her, rumors of a loveless marriage flew and some speculated that the couple could be approaching a divorce.

"She can't stand him," said Joy Behar of "The View" after watching video of the now-infamous hand-slap.

Some have even speculated that the former model so loathes her husband that she employs a body double to occasionally accompany him to public events.

By all accounts, Melania Trump dotes on her son Barron and is doing everything in her power to create a stable environment for him in Washington. However, given her often icy demeanor and infrequent public remarks, the first lady is offering little to combat the persistent rumors that she is "miserable" being married to Donald Trump.