Donald Trump Jr.'s wife took legal steps on Thursday to formally end their 12-year marriage,
and the couple issued a statement saying they're going their separate ways but "will always
have tremendous respect for each other and our families."
Vanessa Trump, a former model, listed the breakup as "uncontested" in a state Supreme
Court divorce complaint filing that is secret except for the title of the case.
The Trumps, each 40 years old, were married in 2005 and have five children. Their first
child, a girl born in 2007, made a grandfather of Donald Trump a decade before he became
president. In a statement issued through The Trump Organization,
where Donald Trump Jr. is an executive, the couple said in part: "After 12 years of marriage,
we have decided to go our separate ways. ... We have five beautiful children together and
they remain our top priority." The divorce filing comes as Trump Jr. has
emerged as a central figure in at least one focus point of the special counsel's investigation
into Trump ties to Russia: a June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower involving a Russian lawyer
and top campaign aides that, according to Trump Jr.'s emails, he accepted after being
promised dirt on Hillary Clinton, Trump's Democratic rival.
Trump Jr. was an enthusiastic mainstay on the campaign trail during his father's 2016
march to the Republican presidential nomination and then the presidency and now co-runs the
family business with his brother Eric Trump, overseeing a global empire that includes hotels,
golf courses and a winery. He is a popular GOP fundraising draw and has
expressed political ambitions of his own, though he has drawn criticism for peddling
online right-wing and alt-right memes. Vanessa Trump's engagement and marriage to
Trump Jr. had been a subject of tabloid fascination in New York long before her father-in-law,
who has been divorced twice and married three times, entered politics.
At the time of their engagement, there were unflattering stories about how Trump Jr. had
accepted a free diamond ring from a jewelry merchant in New Jersey in exchange for staging
a recreation of his wedding proposal outside the store for reporters and TV cameras.
But soon, Trump Jr.'s name was more often associated publicly with his appearances alongside
his father on "The Apprentice" or as a judge at beauty pageants.
A profile on the couple by The New York Times in 2006 reflected the lightheartedness and
pressures of the pair's early days and led Trump Jr. to reflect on the spotlight that
fell on his father anytime the family business soured or he confronted divorce.
"Sometimes being a Trump, everyone kind of wants to see you fail," Trump Jr. told the
newspaper. The article said Vanessa Haydon Trump grew
up in a town house on Manhattan's Upper East Side, and it recalled her amusement at their
initial 2003 meeting when Donald Trump introduced himself and his son to her, only to return
later and say: "I don't think you've met my son Donald Trump Jr." The Times quoted Vanessa
Trump as responding: "Yeah, we just met, five minutes ago."
When the young couple met again at a party six weeks later, they didn't remember the
earlier meeting until they talked for an hour and Vanessa Trump suddenly recalled that encounter,
the newspaper said. Last month, Vanessa Trump opened a letter
to her husband containing an unidentified white powder and was briefly hospitalized
as a precaution, but the substance turned out to be nonhazardous. A Massachusetts man
later was charged with sending the threatening letter.