Going by press coverage alone, Donald Trump's first wife, Ivana, and his daughter with her,
Ivanka, couldn't appear more different.
Sure, they're both blonde, glamorous Trump women, but for as polished and rehearsed as
Ivanka comes across, her mother can be brash, irreverent, and controversial.
So, how does that work as far as their mother-daughter relationship goes?
Here's a glimpse at the dynamic between the first two women to capture the heart of The
Donald.
Name game
Though the 'k' in her name is undoubtedly appreciated by copy editors everywhere, Ivanka
was actually named after her mother, meaning they share the handle, Ivana Marie Trump.
Ivanka made the revelation on Twitter in 2010, explaining that "Ivanka" is actually the Czech
"baby name for Ivana."
Her mom also spelled out the details in her 2017 memoir, Raising Trump.
Ivana actually won the fight to name Ivanka, or at least that's what she claimed in an
interview with ABC News.
"He wanted to call Ivanka, Tiffany […] and I said, 'Over my dead body she's going to
be called Tiffany.'
She's going to be named Ivana Maria Trump.
I decided all names."
Raising Ivanka
It's well-known that Donald's approach to parenting is pretty "hands-off."
In 2005, he told Larry King what his role would be if he ever had children with Melania:
"I'm not going to be doing the diapers.
I'm not going to be making the food.
I may never even see the kids, frankly.
Okay?"
Ivana concurs with Donald in Raising Trump, claiming that although he was a good father
to them, she's the one who deserves "the credit for raising such great kids."
She writes,
"I was in charge of raising our children before our divorce, and I had sole custody of them
after the split.
I made the decisions about their education, activities, travel, child care, and allowances."
A Vanity Fair profile on the Trump half-sisters paints a slightly different picture: Ivana
is described as "not around much when Ivanka was growing up," due to her obligations as
CEO for Trump's Castle casino in Atlantic City.
In her absence, the kids were attended to by a bodyguard and two nannies, one of whom
Ivanka referred to as "a second mother" and her "closest confidant."
Ivanka's role model
In her own book, Women Who Work, which examines the balancing act modern women attempt to
achieve between their professional and personal lives, Ivanka cites Ivana as a personal role
model:
"It was my mother, unapologetically feminine in a male industry, who first embodied and
defined for me what it meant to be a multidimensional woman—a woman who works at all aspects of
her life."
The praise doesn't stop there.
In Raising Trump, Ivanka's words are often featured in block quotes, like this one:
"I'm immensely proud of our mother and excited that she's written this book.
She is an amazing mom, teacher, and inspiration to all of us."
Tough times
According to Vanity Fair, Don Jr. took Ivana and Donald's 1992 divorce the hardest, allegedly
going so far as to not speak to his father for an entire year afterward.
For Ivanka, who was just 9-years-old at the time, the fracture of her family was, of course,
very personal, but also struck a fear within her that she would no longer be associated
with the powerful family name.
Looking back as an adult, Ivanka now believes that considering the circumstances of the
high-profile split, her parents both did a great job shielding the kids from the negative
aspects.
She told People in 2016, "They made a real effort to ensure that we
knew that they would always be there for us and accessible to us and it helped us through
a difficult time."
The other woman
Though Ivana and Ivank a seem to have made great strides in maintaining their non-traditional
family unit, neither has the time of day for the woman who they believe made it that way:
Marla Maples, Donald's mistress-turned-wife, and mother to his youngest child Tiffany.
In that same with ABC News, Ivana pulls no punches, referring to Marla only as "the showgirl":
"I never accepted her apology.
She ruined my family and my marriage."
Ivanka's stance on her ex-stepmom is more reserved.
When asked by People if she's close with Maples, Ivanka offered only a clipped response.
"I'm not.
She was out in California and really my relationship is with Tiffany."
Golden boy
In Raising Trump, Ivana recalls that Ivanka didn't bring home many suitors, and after
Ivanka met Jared Kushner—who got Ivana's motherly seal of approval "immediately"—her
dating life effectively came to an end.
Ivana describes Jared as "intelligent," "good looking," "strong," and "a great father."
Ivana points out that Jared makes Ivanka happy, which is all she truly cares about, and that
she views his frank honesty in every situation as a sign that he respects both his wife and
his mother-in-law.
"It takes real guts to put my daughter in her place, right in front of his mother-in-law—and
I'm not your typical mother-in-law.
He's either very comfortable around me, or they're comfortable being complementary and
critical of each other, or all of the above."
Blonde inspiration
Ivana is quick to point out that Ivanka's "elegance" comes directly from her.
In an interview with Time, she recalls how her daughter would ...
"... sit on the bathtub rim watching her mom get dolled up every evening, after ballet
classes and art lessons at the Metropolitan Museum."
So you could rightly assume that Ivanka's dyed-blonde locks, which Ivana also sports,
were just another glamour mom hand-me-down.
But in another story from Raising Trump, Ivanka herself reveals that it was only after she
had dyed her hair blue as part of her "punk phase in the nineties" that her mom dragged
her to a drug store and corrected the unforgivable gaffe with a, quote, "$10 box of Nice'n Easy."
Ivanka says she learned to love it:
"The color she picked out was actually three shades lighter than my natural color.
And I have never looked back!"
Thanks for watching!
Click the Nicki Swift icon to subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Plus check out all this cool stuff we know you'll love, too!