Before Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner became an instantly recognizable duo,
Ivanka was an outsider to the Kushner clan, and it was no easy task to penetrate that fortress.
So what's Ivanka's relationship with her in-laws like? Keep watching to find out.
The Kushners and the Trumps have one thing in common: real estate. Charles and Seryl
Kushner made their fortune off of New Jersey real estate to the tune of approximately $2 billion,
according to New York Magazine. Charles' parents were Holocaust survivors who escaped Poland and
fled to the United States in 1949. They found a community of fellow survivors in Newark and
the area became deeply significant to the family. Of their four children,
Charles showed intense motivation and drive, always keeping the family mantra close to heart:
"Think like an immigrant, act like an immigrant."
Charles and his father partnered on a real estate company that grew into an empire.
While the Kushners' business skill certainly contributes to their story of power and authority
in the United States, it's really their devotion to their Jewish faith that influenced their
initial reluctance to accept Ivanka. The Kushners were extremely financially generous in supporting
their Jewish community, as Esquire notes, and valued their elite status within that group.
A source told New York Magazine that Charles loved that when he walked into a synagogue,
the rabbis approached. Charlie saw himself as, quote, "the Jewish Kennedy."
But the Kushner story is not without scandal. Charles went to prison for
illegal campaign donations and tax evasion after being indicted by ​​Chris Christie.
"Thank you once again Charles for all that you have done for the Democratic party."
He finished his sentence in 2006 and was pardoned by then-President Donald Trump in 2020.
While Charles Kushner has four children, Jared Kushner, his eldest, seems to be the one Charles
picked to carry on the family legacy. As New York Magazine notes, following Charles' imprisonment,
Jared became the face of the family. When they bought the famous 666 Fifth Avenue,
Jared told the outlet that he got the better office. Jared said of his dad,
"The only fight we had, he wanted me to take this corner
[instead of him]. I think it's the better view, but my father insisted."
"My father is an incredible man. We're very,
very close. He's always been a great mentor and friend."
The two remain close, and Charles is extremely protective of his son, especially when it comes
to the media. He said to Gabriel Sherman, the author of the New York Magazine article,
"Be nice to my son. We've been killed enough by
the press. Just because I've been killed, don't kill him."
While Charles is extremely protective of Jared,
he's also full of praise for him. He said of Jared,
"He was the best son to his father in jail. The best son to his mother,
who suffered terribly, and he was a father to his siblings."
"No matter what Charlie did, he was going to stand by his side,
but I also think he needed Charlie's guidance at that point."
There's an interesting parallel between the Kushner children and the Trump children.
In speaking of Jared, The New York Times wrote that like Trump's children,
Kushner grew up in a life of extreme privilege. So how did Jared and Ivanka meet?
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner met through business. Friends in a real estate company
set up a business lunch with the optimistic idea that they could put their combined
financial experience to good use. Well, the meal went from business to personal.
They started dating in 2007, and since they were both from famous families, their relationship
quickly became noteworthy. The parallels between the two made the relationship seem that much more
fitting. They were both 25. Both had famous fathers, often for contentious reasons.
Both were immersed in the world of real estate, and both had proven themselves on their own,
though we're not saying that they're exactly self-made.
Ivanka later reminisced to Vogue about that fateful lunch
and said of the friends who orchestrated the event,
"They very innocently set us up thinking that our only interest in one another
would be transactional. Whenever we see them we're like, 'The best deal we ever made!'"
While some saw Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner as a match made in heaven, Charles and Seryl
Kushner did not. In her 2019 book, Kushner, Inc., Vicky Ward writes about how Jared's
parents were horrified by their relationship. Their reason, as Ward notes, was that they
didn't like the idea of their son marrying outside of their faith. Ward goes on to say,
"The idea was particularly offensive to Seryl, who had raised the children.
They were her world, and her world was the closed conservative Jewish culture she had grown up in."
Jared was raised in the Modern Orthodox tradition, which means that one lives within the secular
world while still closely adhering to religious customs. For the Kushners, their faith came first,
and they expected their children to adhere to this mindset as well. So it was actually Jared's
mother, Seryl, who told him to back off from his relationship with Ivanka, according to Esquire.
Though it's much less circulated, the Trumps may not have always been pleased with Ivanka's choice
either. When he was president, Donald Trump reportedly said several times that he could
have had Tom Brady for a son-in-law, but instead got Kushner. While there's no evidence that Brady
and Ivanka dated, it shows both families weren't always happy with the situation.
With so much push-back over their relationship, it might not be a
huge surprise that Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump broke up for a hot minute.
The entire family, even Jared himself, was deeply immersed in Judaism. According to The New Yorker,
when Jared was at Harvard, his loyalty to his family and faith came through equally — He
called his parents every day, and on Fridays he ate in a Kosher dining hall. The Kushner
family wanted Jared to marry a Jewish woman. Meanwhile, there's Ivanka, raised Presbyterian,
who was often seen wearing a cross in her younger days. So Jared and Ivanka broke up in 2008.
But it didn't last long. Only three months later, they reconnected at a party which was
hosted by Wendi Deng Murdoch, who was married to media mogul, Rupert Murdoch, from 1999-2013.
As Ward notes, neither Ivanka nor Jared knew that they'd bump into each other at the event,
but that was enough to get the ball rolling again. However,
Ivanka still had a ways to go before she was accepted by the Kushner parents.
Ivanka Trump agreed to convert to Judaism.
It was really the only way a long-term relationship with Jared Kushner would work.
Ivanka studied with Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, and it was something that seemed to be a positive
experience for her. When she was in the process of converting, she told New York Magazine,
"I am studying, and it's been an amazing and fulfilling experience for me. [...] One of the
jokes I first started making when Jared and I first started dating is, I'm a New Yorker,
I'm in real estate. I'm as close to Jewish, with an 'i-s-h' naturally as anyone can start off."
While this might have been Ivanka's take,
Charles Kushner wasn't easily convinced. Bob Sommer, the publicist for the Kushner Companies,
told Esquire that Charles put Ivanka to the test when it came to her conversion. He said,
"This wasn't like, 'Talk to a rabbi,
read a couple of paragraphs. It was hard and difficult, and it was on Charlie's terms."
New York Magazine noted too that Seryl Kushner took a long time to warm up to the idea.
But Ivanka persisted and wound up proving herself to the Kushners. So finally, in 2009, they were
ready to welcome her into their family and Jared gave Ivanka a 5.22-carat diamond engagement ring.
Their wedding marked a major turning point in Ivanka's relationship with the family.
After an eventful and often challenging dating period,
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner finally got married on Oct. 25,
2009. The wedding was as massive and expensive as one would expect of any Trump event. They hosted
their 500 guests at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J. Best of all for the bride,
the wedding marked a major turning point in Ivanka's relationship with her in-laws.
After putting Ivanka to task in her conversion process to Judaism,
Charles Kushner was allegedly extremely warm in his speech.
A guest at the wedding told Esquire that Charles essentially said,
"Look, everyone thinks she's great, but being Jewish is just unbelievably important to us,
and she's not Jewish. It's a problem for me, a genuine problem. Then I watched and got to see
she's in love with my son and it wasn't what I thought in the beginning. I feel right about it."
It seems both Charles and Seryl were eventually delighted about the match.
In her book Kushner, Inc., Vicky Ward quoted Bob Sommer, the family's publicist, who said,
"By the time the wedding took place, [...] Charlie and Seryl were effusive about their
new daughter-in-law. According to Sommer, Ivanka had not just passed
the tests — she had far surpassed Charlie's expectations. She had also charmed Charlie,
who would proudly explain to a friend that she really wanted to be a Kushner."
So with that momentous day, Ivanka was officially a member of the family.
While the Kushners were initially skeptical about Ivanka Trump, the arrival of another
woman in the family was evidence that Ivanka didn't need to take it personally.
Jared Kushner's younger brother, Josh, began dating supermodel Karlie Kloss in June 2012,
and the outlet notes that it's unclear where they first met. Their budding relationship became
public when Josh attended the afterparty for the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show.
Kloss was a model for the brand for years and officially became an Angel in 2013.
However, when it came to being welcomed by the Kushner family, Kloss had an even harder time
than Ivanka did. Ward wrote in Kushner Inc., that friends of the family refused to call her
anything but, quote, "the lingerie model." Ward wrote that Josh told others he wasn't allowed
to bring Kloss to any family parties, and Charles and Seryl refused to even meet her for six years.
Ward writes that Charles was hard on Josh,
and he openly expressed his disdain for his son's choice, allegedly telling his son,
"Josh, we expect you to do the right thing. The person you are with is not the right person."
Kloss, like Ivanka, ended up converting to Judaism to marry Josh,
but it wasn't as easy an initiation as it was for Ivanka. In fact,
Josh's relationship made Ivanka seem that much better in the Kushner's eyes.
The Kushners eventually warmed up enough to Karlie Kloss that she and Josh Kushner married in 2018
in a small, Jewish wedding in upstate New York. There were only 80 people at the
celebration and while the Kushner parents finally acquiesced to the arrangement,
they weren't completely happy about it. As Vicky Ward writes in her book,
"Despite Kloss' efforts, the fissure was not closed by the nuptials. Charlie and
Seryl admitted to a friend that they had not been asked to play any part in planning the wedding."
Interestingly, the sudden comparison between their two daughters-in-law made Ivanka Trump
that much more appealing in their eyes. Ward wrote that if friends pointed out that
they were being hypocritical, being hesitant about Kloss while gradually accepting Ivanka,
they had a rebuttal ready, telling people that Ivanka was different.
Ward explained,
"She was a Trump. She was also, like Jared, real estate royalty. And she'd attended an Ivy League
school, the University of Pennsylvania. Kloss grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri,
a suburb of St. Louis, and hadn't even been to college when she and Josh began dating."
So oddly enough, it was a new Kushner relationship
that made it clear how much Charles and Seryl had come to like Ivanka.
While Ivanka Trump is officially in the inner circle of the Kushner clan,
she's had a tricky relationship with Kloss. Ivanka and Jared Kushner attended Kloss'
wedding to Josh Kushner, but the two women have had a complicated relationship due to politics.
Kloss is an outspoken Democrat, which created friction between herself and Ivanka and Jared,
who both took on senior roles in Donald Trump's White House. On Watch What Happens
Live with Andy Cohen, Cohen asked Kloss if she agreed with the family's politics.
"I'm sure I'm not the only person in this country who does not
necessarily agree with their family on politics."
Kloss wrapped up by saying that she voted as a Democrat in 2016
and planned to do the same in 2020.
Ivanka has reached out with an olive branch a few times on social media. In March 2019,
Ivanka posted a video on Twitter of Kloss hosting Project Runway and said,
"Gosh Karlie, it's happening! Amazing. Project Runway. Karlie is host."
"Epic."
However, Kloss didn't respond to this praise, nor does she follow Ivanka on Twitter or Instagram.
After the riot on the U.S. Capitol Building in January 2021,
Kloss tweeted a message directed at Donald Trump, writing,
"Accepting the results of a legitimate democratic
election is patriotic. Refusing to do so and inciting violence is anti-American."
Someone commented,
"Tell your sister in law and brother [in] law."
Kloss replied,
"I've tried."
While the Kushners gave Ivanka Trump a hard time early on, it's not like either family can boast
superiority. In many ways, their compared wealth and their scandals put them on equal footing.
Charles Kushner served his time for tax evasion and illegal campaign contributions,
as well as paying a sex worker $10,000 to sleep with a brother-in-law with whom he was feuding,
having it filmed to send to his sister.
The Trump family also has scandals and, like the Kushners, they center
around the patriarch. Donald Trump has several allegations of sexual assault,
all of which Trump has denied. His companies have also gone bankrupt several times throughout his
business years and then of course, his term in the White House was checkered with controversy.
Keeping all of this in mind, it's unrealistic for one family to lord superiority over the other.
Mary Trump, who has now become an outspoken critic of her famous uncle,
was critical of the Kushners' superior attitude at Ivanka and Jared's wedding.
In her book Too Much and Never Enough, Mary Trump said she disliked
Charles' jokes that Ivanka was barely good enough to join their family. She wrote,
"Considering that Charles had been convicted of hiring a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law,
taping their illicit encounter, and then sending the recording to his sister at
his nephew's engagement party, I found his condescension a bit out of line."
The Kushners were famous and powerful before Donald Trump became president,
but his time in the White House pushed Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner into the political
arena in a major way by making them senior advisors. So what did the Kushners think of
Trump in the White House? Charles opened up to The Real Deal in 2018 and said that while
he was a Democrat in the past, he doesn't stand with either party anymore. He said,
"I don't share a lot of the Republican beliefs and values
on a lot of issues. The Democratic Party that I supported for all the years is not the same
Democratic Party of today on a lot of issues that are very near and dear to my heart."
He said that he'd likely register as an Independent.
That being said, Kushner did have considerable praise for Trump, saying,
"It's very controversial to say, I do believe in President Trump. I think he's done a good job."
Kushner added that he thinks Trump is a great leader.
The praise did not go unnoticed as Trump pardoned Kushner in 2020.
"The president spending his final days in office wiping away the convictions
of close allies and associates."
Trump's statement read,
"Since completing his sentence in 2006,
Mr. Kushner has been devoted to important philanthropic organizations and causes."
However, after the riots at the U.S. Capitol in 2021, Kushner told The New York Times that
Trump's behavior was beyond the family's control, so he clearly isn't one sided.
"Because you'll never
take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong."
With such an eventful courtship, followed by an even more notable term in the White House,
Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump have been through it all and Charles and Seryl Kushner
have been there to support them. When Jared and Ivanka were living in Washington, D.C.
during Donald Trump's presidency, Charles and Seryl came to visit them and their three children.
The Daily Mail said that staff were loading up a car, implying that the whole family
was leaving for a weekend getaway, and that Charles and Seryl were all smiles.
After the Trumps left the White House following the inauguration of Joe Biden in January 2021,
the entire Trump clan left for Florida. Ivanka and Jared bought a $24 million mansion
in Indian Creek, and it looks like Charles and Seryl regularly visit.
Jared's parents own a home in Florida and regularly stay there,
so that they can be closer to their son, Ivanka, and their grandchildren.
One obvious reason for the close bond between the in-laws and the young family
is that Ivanka seems deeply immersed in the Jewish faith. She frequently shares images
of her family actively participating in their religion, like when her children lit the menorah.
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner certainly have an eventful story together. But their
relationship has grown beyond the early drama. Despite going through
the ringer for their relationship, especially on Ivanka's side, they're remarkably similar.
All press coverage of Charles Kushner's relationship with Jared indicates that
the father openly praises his son and groomed him, from all of his children, for the role of
carrying on the Kushner empire. Likewise, Ivanka, of all of her siblings, seems to be the apple
of Donald Trump's eye. The New Yorker goes so far as to say that Ivanka is Trump's favorite.
Both Ivanka and Jared have a deep distrust of the media. The Washington Post noted in
2017 that Jared never talks to the press, and Jared himself told Forbes the same thing shortly
after Donald Trump's election. Ivanka learned this at a much younger age, where at nine,
she was hounded by paparazzi following her father and mother's divorce. She told GQ in 2007,
"You know, the media is vicious, they're brutal—present company excluded. It taught me
not to trust anyone. You can never let your guard down, and I never really have since that time."
Clearly, they're both tight-lipped. So Jared and Ivanka seem like two peas in a gilded pod.
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