It was a tale as old as time about ego, excess, and Donald's affairs. That fairy tale eventually
crumbled, but there were a lot of pressures and components that went into the Trumps'
personal lives falling apart. Take a look inside the breakdown of Ivana and Donald Trump's
marriage.
Ivana Trump was a model from Czechoslovakia who emigrated to Canada and eventually made
her way to New York City, where she met Donald Trump in 1976. According to the New York Post,
the duo's first encounter was at an Upper East Side bar.
"And frankly, I was dating a lot of people, and I was dating the most beautiful people
in the world, and I got tired, you know I got tired."
The entrepreneur was in a chivalrous mood, so he assisted the model in getting a table
for her party. Ivana remembered him saying,
"I'm Donald Trump and I see you're looking for a table. I can help you."
"Donald always had a great head on his shoulders and I saw the potential."
After a whirlwind courtship, the couple married in 1977 and became the toast of the town in
the 1980s, representing everything about the decade of excess.
When Trump Tower opened in 1983, it became a symbol of their marriage — a glitzy, shiny
ivory tower of wealth sitting right there on Fifth Avenue. It brought a lot of attention
to the couple, and they basked in the adoration. But not everyone loved the new building. Frommer's
described it as a, quote, "bold and brassy place" and went on to say,
"[It's] definitely not your average shopping mall. The gold signage on the 1983 building
practically screams, 'Look at me!'"
And "look at me" is exactly what the couple wanted everyone to do. From the society columns
in The New York Times to the gossip columns in the New York Post, the media soaked up
every single thing the Trumps did — from charity events to business deals.
With the spotlight on him and his real estate holdings, Donald was seduced by more than
money. His ego got bigger, and there was no shortage of women who would throw glances
at one of the most powerful men in New York. Several famous names were mentioned as rumored
affairs: Peggy Fleming, Catherine Oxenberg, Robin Givens, and Carol Alt. Oxenberg denied
the gossip to People magazine in 1990, saying,
"It's a complete joke as far as I'm concerned. I hardly know the man."
Alt's talent manager had a similar frosty reaction when asked about the reported dalliance,
telling the outlet,
"Donald Trump is a fortunate man, but he's not that fortunate."
But we have to remember that Donald was the one who loved to talk to the press and loved
seeing his name in print. He even went as far as having an alter ego named "John Barron"
as a pretend publicist. So, maybe he was the one leaking those rumors to the tabloids?
We may never know the real truth, but the former vice president of the Trump Organization
told PBS' "Frontline,"
"I don't think Donald was necessarily evasive with the press when he used his alter ego
John Barron. I think it gave him the opportunity to say things that he couldn't say as Donald
Trump."
Ivana Trump was a hard worker who helped Donald put the Trump name on the map. She was smart
as a whip, but Donald didn't want to share credit with his wife — he wanted all of
the accolades for himself. Ivana bragged to Vanity Fair in 1988 that her husband called
her, quote, "his twin as a woman." Even so, Donald certainly didn't give her enough respect.
"There's not a lot of disagreement because ultimately Ivana does exactly as I tell her
to do."
When she was running his Atlantic City casino hotel, Trump's Castle, he underpaid his wife
by giving her $1 per year and an unlimited dress budget, according to Newsweek. Ivana
rarely complained, though, because she felt like they were creating an American dream
together. Speaking about her job as CEO at Trump's Castle, she told Vanity Fair,
"We have nearly four thousand employees. A payroll of $1.2 million a week. Ten thousand
people come every day to the Castle. We serve 13,000 covers — food and drink. It's like
running a small city. You have to know about housekeeping, laundry, entertainment, showgirls,
orchestra, casino lounges, the health club. Plus hotel marketing, casino marketing."
Ivana knew all of that and more as she continued to plug away at the Trump Organization to
help build Donald's empire.
"We should have world record-setting fights but we really don't, we get along very well."
Donald reportedly met Marla Maples when he, quote, "swaggered into" her on Madison Avenue.
The Southern belle told Vanity Fair in 1990,
"I had seen him at different places throughout the years and just said hello, I was just
somebody he shook hands with."
The duo would see one another at Marble Collegiate Church on Fifth Avenue. Maples explained,
"Not that we went together, but we would both be there on occasion."
But at some point, it turned into a romantic situation. The Trump-Maples relationship became
a full-blown affair that Trump did not hide from his colleagues. Casino Journal's managing
editor at the time said,
"Donald was not really very discreet about it. He had her stay on the Trump Princess
all summer except when Ivana came."
Though Donald might have thought Maples was just a fling, she told Vanity Fair that a
more defined relationship was, quote, "something I'd been praying for for a long time."
And on ABC News' "Journeys of Faith with Paula Faris" podcast, Maples said she never considered
herself the mistress of Donald Trump. She felt they had a deep connection, and she relied
on her faith to see it through. She told Faris,
"Every step of the way, I was praying, 'God, please be in this. Please be in this. I do
not want to be part of breaking anything up that has a chance.'"
Ivana Trump's most important role in her life was being a mom to her three children, Donald
Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Ivanka Trump. The kids spent most of their time with their mother
because Donald was too busy with his career — and Marla Maples. Ivana claimed to 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.'"
And remember, Ivana was not only raising their children at that time, but she was also running
parts of the Trump Organization — so she was busy, to say the least.
In her 2017 book "Raising Trump," she explained that she was quite the disciplinarian when
it came to her very privileged offspring. She wrote,
"I showed them dignity, diligence, and determination by example, and gave them age-appropriate
responsibilities and rules, which they followed without question — or there'd be hell to
pay."
Ivanka appreciated the way her mom raised her and gave her kudos in her 2009 book, "The
Trump Card: Playing to Win in Work and Life." She wrote,
"People think she's all hard polish and elegance, a control freak and a little princess, but
really, she's down-to-earth, empathetic, insightful, and vulnerable at times, and she cares deeply
about the people she loves and the causes she supports."
With Donald allegedly running around with younger women, Ivana wanted to make herself
look better and underwent several surgeries to enhance her looks — and she made no secret
about it. Ivana's plastic surgeon of choice was known to work with high-end celebrity
clients such as Joan Rivers, Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor, and more, according to Vanity
Fair. At the time of Donald's alleged affair with Catherine Oxenberg, Ivana reportedly
chose to emulate Oxenberg's look. A source told People magazine in 1990,
"Ivana knew Donald was serious about Catherine. Copying Catherine's face was the last desperate
move. But it didn't work."
Of course, Ivana stayed mum about that first major plastic surgery but slyly told the entertainment
outlet that, quote, "if people can improve themselves, they should." Ivana did have an
obsession with looking young, and she told Harper's Bazaar that while she enjoyed the
wisdom that comes with age, she was often inspired by her daughter Ivanka Trump's youthfulness.
She said,
"You take from them — the looks, in the clothing, in the dressing. The younger generation
keeps you young."
But Donald contributed to Ivana's fixation with looking young. Harper's alleged that
it was her then-husband who told her to, quote, "never look a day over 28." That must have
been a lot of pressure on the mom-of-three in the public eye as she worked for the Trump
Organization.
During the holiday ski season in 1989, Marla Maples traveled to Aspen, Colorado, where
Donald was vacationing with Ivana Trump and their three kids — and what happened next
is New York City gossip history. Ivana had already caught wind that her husband was canoodling
with a woman in Aspen, but he told her that she was just, quote, "a girl [who was] going
after me for [the] last two years," according to Ivana's interview with Barbara Walters.
However, it was something more significant than that. Ivana confronted a friend of Maples'
in a restaurant line and told her,
"I understand from my husband that you have a friend which is after my husband for last
two years. Will you give her the message that I love my husband very much."
Of course, Donald's mistress was standing right next to the friend, and that's when
this affair got a little too real. Ivana wrote in her "Raising Trump" memoir,
"This young blonde woman approached me out of the blue and said 'I'm Marla and I love
your husband. Do you?' I said 'Get lost. I love my husband.' It was unladylike but I
was in shock."
That confrontation would stay in the New York City tabloid headlines for 11 days straight
as the Trumps' marriage fell apart publicly.
The return home from the Aspen vacation was not an easy one for Donald and Ivana Trump.
The couple tried to stick it out for appearances and work on a half-hearted reconciliation,
but they weren't fooling anyone. Friends and the press knew this marriage was over. Ivana
wrote in "Raising Trump,"
"I can only shake my head at how it insane it was. [...] I couldn't turn on the television
without hearing my name."
Donald's business trip to Tokyo in early February 1990 was the game-changer in the relationship.
Just before he left, Donald had his spokesperson relay a message to the media. According to
Newsweek, that message was:
"He told Ivana it just was not working out."
He hadn't told Ivana his definitive plans, but word got back to his first wife and she
got to work. Ivana got her ducks in a row and started the divorce proceedings. She and
Donald were separated that month, and she officially filed for divorce in November.
Donald did display a rare moment of emotion at the time, telling People magazine,
"I love my children and I will always love Ivana. Right now, our paths have gone in different
directions, but I would never do anything to hurt her."
The couple fought over their prenuptial agreement because Ivana believed it needed to be nullified
while Donald wanted it upheld.
"He took the divorce as a business deal and he cannot lose."
According to The New York Times, the prenup morphed over the years and was amended four
times — likely from the marriage and the birth of their three kids. But the negotiations
were anything but easy because Donald was deep in debt at the time and Ivana wanted
to make sure she wasn't added to his long list of creditors. She also wanted to fight
some of the stipulations in the agreement because it reportedly said:
"Should the couple split, she return everything — cars, furs, rings — that Mr. Trump might
give her during their marriage."
According to the New York Daily News, Ivana said in a 1990 deposition,
"I remember the part about the gifts. I had been very hurt. I had been confused by it
[...] I didn't understand the whole concept, why I'm returning the gifts which are going
to be acquired by my husband and given to me during our marriage."
Donald wasn't going to take any responsibility for that clause. He said it was his lawyer's
fault and the clause was removed. According to The New York Times, Ivana eventually walked
away with $14 million, plus $650,000 in child support annually and their Connecticut estate,
an apartment in the Trump Plaza, and the use of the 118-room Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida
for one month a year.
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