An athletic youth. A marriage before Donald Trump,
and two more marriages after him. Vital contributions to a business empire.
There was a lot more to Ivana Trump than being a former president's ex-wife.
Keep watching for what you may not have known about the recently deceased socialite.
Born Ivana Marie Zelnícková on February 20, 1949, in the town now known as Zlin, Czech Republic,
Ivana Trump developed skills in sports as a child, eventually picking up an interest in skiing.
According to USA Today, her career as a competitive skier started at age six.
Her specialties were downhill and slalom,
which can be very difficult. But Ivana was not one to give up. She told The New York Daily News,
"I was a daredevil, though I was always scared on the downhill and broke my bones a thousand times."
"I decided on skiing because it's a very wonderful sport. It's a social sport--"
"And you're great at it." "And I'm very good at it."
Encouraged by her father, Ivana would eventually make the junior national team, Newsweek reported.
On the team, she was able to represent the then-Czechoslovakia in tournaments, affording
her the luxury of traveling across Europe. The famed socialite had also claimed, according to
the New York Daily News, to have been chosen as an alternate skier for the Czech 1972 Olympic team.
She would then go on to be a model.
Long before Donald Trump came into the picture, Ivana had a life of her own. According to The
Washington Post, in November 1971, 22-year-old Ivana married Alfred Winklmayr, an Austrian skier,
solely to get an Austrian passport. She obtained her Austrian citizenship in March 1972,
and divorced Winklamyr in 1973, according to People.
In addition to her marriage to Winklamyr, Ivana was involved in a couple more romantic
relationships throughout the early '70s. People reported that she had an affair with Bohemian
poet Jiri Staidl until his death in 1973. She also moved to Canada to reunite with George Syrovatka,
an old flame who was apparently behind her arranged marriage to Winklamyr.
It is not clear when Ivana and Syrovatka ended their relationship,
but after Donald came into the picture, nothing was ever the same.
According to The Independent, Ivana's first contact with Donald Trump was in 1976,
while she was in New York for a fashion show. Ivana told the New York Post that she was
waiting for a table with friends when Donald struck up a conversation with her. He ended up
sitting at their table and eventually cleared the bills before disappearing. Ivana told the Post,
"I said, 'There's something strange because
I've never met a man who didn't want anything from a woman and paid for it.'"
In April 1977, barely a year after they met, Donald and Ivana got married. That same year,
the couple welcomed their first son, Donald Trump Jr. Their daughter, Ivanka Trump, was born four
years later, in 1981, while their youngest son, Eric Trump, entered the world in 1984.
During their marriage, Donald allegedly frequently cheated on Ivana with multiple women, including
Marla Maples, who famously became Donald's second wife, and the mother of Tiffany Trump.
According to the Chicago Tribune, the public first caught wind of Donald and Ivana's troubled
marriage during their 1989 Christmas holiday in Aspen, where they were caught fighting over
Donald's alleged affair with Marla Maples. Ivana would go on to file for a divorce from Donald.
According to the New York Daily News, Ivana accused Donald of verbal assault and rape
while describing their marriage as unsafe. She would later recant her allegations,
according to The Daily Beast, claiming that she did not mean rape in a criminal context.
People reported that Ivana had signed a prenuptial agreement in which she agreed to a $25 million
limit on what she could take in a divorce settlement. Her lawyers thought
this to be an unjust arrangement, given Ivana's contributions to the success of the Trump empire.
In 1992, the divorce proceedings came to an end, and Ivana walked away with $14 million,
a 45-room Connecticut mansion, an apartment in Trump Plaza in Manhattan,
and Mar-a-Lago for one month per year, The New York Times reported.
"May I have the last slice?"
"Actually, you're only entitled to half."
Ivana Trump was not about to let one bad marriage deter her from love.
Ivana started dating Italian businessman Riccardo Mazzucchelli in 1991, according to Marca. In 1994,
Mazzucchelli proposed, and by 1995, they were married. Things took a turn for the couple,
though, and in 1997 they announced their separation. Ivana told People,
"I'm very sad, I cry. I love Riccardo. This is a tremendously hard time for me.
It's very painful to go through six years of relationship with a person
and to be disappointed or filing for divorce or whatever."
But Ivana moved on pretty quickly,
starting a romantic relationship with Roffredo Gaetani d'Aragona in 1997.
According to Marca, the couple was together until 2005, when he died in a car crash.
In 2008, Ivana got married yet again to Rossano Rubicondi, an Italian actor who was
23 years her junior. Less than a year after they tied the knot, they divorced. Still,
as Page Six reported, they remained an on-and-off couple for many more years.
Ivana Trump had a great relationship with her kids and loved them dearly.
In 2016, the famed socialite admitted to solely raising her three kids in their formative years
and then leaving it to their father once they got older. She told the New York Daily News,
"Donald wasn't really interested in the children until he could talk business with them.
When they turned 21, I handed them over to him and said 'Here's the finished product,
you can take them from here.'"
In her 2017 memoir, "Raising Trump," Ivana wrote about her love for her children, saying:
"No matter how busy I was, I had breakfast with my children every day."
Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric likewise never held back on letting the world
know how much their mom meant to them. Eric told CBS News in 2017,
"We truly love her. I have amazing parents and I could
not be more thankful because they are just great people."
Though she never made it to the White House, Ivana was arguably Donald Trump's most influential wife.
During their marriage, Ivana worked alongside Donald on numerous projects across his business
dealings. According to Reuters, Ivana once served as vice president for interior design for the
Trump Organization. The Guardian also reported that, after Donald purchased The Plaza Hotel
in 1988, Ivana was its manager, and has been praised for her work bringing it back to life.
Ivana also worked as a supervisor for the Trump Taj Mahal Casino, and was also
actively involved with the development of Trump Castle, where she served as president and CEO.
"He wouldn't be who he is without you."
"That's for sure."
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