Ivana Trump, a Czech immigrant who was the first wife of Donald Trump during his rise to prominence as a celebrity and real estate investor in the 1980s and was the mother of his three eldest children, died July 14 at her home in Manhattan. She was 73.
The former president announced her death in a post on Truth Social, the social media outlet he launched. Mrs. Trump was found unconscious on a staircase in her apartment on East 64th Street near Central Park after police received an emergency call at 12:40pm and she was pronounced dead at the scene, according to a law enforcement official with knowledge of the event.
NYPD detectives began an investigation and found no sign of forced entry or obvious sign of trauma suggesting criminality. The New York City medical examiner's office will try to determine whether a fall contributed to her death, officials said.
After Donald and Ivana Trump were married on April 7, 1977, they became one of the most famous power couples in New York, constantly featured in the tabloids, with a social profile growing as much as the Trump business empire. By 1984, they had three children: Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump.
Throughout the marriage, Mrs. Trump had an active role in her husband's businesses, even when their children were toddlers. In 1979, she became a vice president in the Trump organization, in charge of decorating the interiors of some of her husband's properties.
The marriage quickly deteriorated, and the New York tabloids competed to dig out lurid tales about the breakup, culminating in a headline in the New York Post: “Best Sex I've Ever Had,” which purported to be a quotation from Maples.
When editors questioned whether Maples had really said those words, the paper's managing editor, Lou Colasuonno, replied that the headline was "libel-proof. Donald will never complain about this one."
The battle over the divorce went on for months and was finally settled in 1991, on grounds of "cruel and inhuman treatment." Mrs. Trump received payments totalling $14 million and kept the house in Greenwich. She had primary custody of the three children and received child support and alimony totalling more than $600,000 a year.
During the depositions and other courtroom proceedings, Mrs. Trump later wrote, “I put on my headphones and cranked Gloria Gaynor's ‘I Will Survive.'”
“The lawyers were going back and forth, and I was singing in my head, 'Did you think I'd crumble? Did you think I'd lay down and die?' Well, that was not going to happen. I would survive.”
Ivana Marie Zelnickova was born February 20, 1949, in what is now Zlín, in the Czech Republic. Her father was an engineer, and her mother was a telephone operator.
After her divorce from Donald Trump, Mrs. Trump went on to a varied and successful career, first as a writer of thinly disguised novels, such as "For Love Alone" and "Free to Love," about a young skier from Europe who marries a rich American and goes through a painful divorce. The books sold hundreds of thousands of copies.
Mrs. Trump often spoke of her resilience and self-reliance. In the 1990s, after her divorce from Donald Trump, she told People magazine, "Do you think that I'm going to lie down and die? Not a chance, girl . . . I have a million deals here and everywhere. I'm going to be just fine, honey."
She was married and divorced two more times, to Riccardo Mazzucchelli and Rossano Rubicondi.
Survivors include her children and 10 grandchildren.
The Washington Post