Model, businesswoman, author and first wife of former president Donald Trump
Throughout the 1980s Ivana Trump enjoyed a reputation for reckless extravagance. With her brash billionaire husband Donald, the future president, she became one of the figureheads of an era associated with greed, decadence and ostentation.
Then, after the sudden and traumatic collapse of their marriage in 1990, her image underwent a transformation. She won the respect of much of America through her indomitable spirit and ability to reinvent herself as a successful writer and businesswoman. ‘‘Women relate to Ivana because she suffered,’’ declared a New York gossip columnist.
‘‘If she is over the top with her wardrobe, or the things she says, it is forgiven because she has been beaten down and she has risen to the top. America loves an underdog.’’
She delighted in her new status as a role model for spurned wives, recalling an Irish proverb in an interview with Hello! magazine: ‘‘A woman is like a teabag. You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water.’’
Contrary to public perception, Ivana Trump, who has died of a suspected cardiac arrest, aged 73, was always much more than an expensive decoration on the arm of her husband, whom she christened ‘‘the Donald’’. Every bit as ambitious as him, she played an important part in building his property empire. She was responsible for the interior design of a number of his property ventures and her roles included vice-president of the Trump Organization and president of the Plaza Hotel, New York.
Thanks to their conspicuous consumerism the couple were rarely out of the headlines and gossip columns. Their suite at Trump Tower comprised more than 50 rooms, replete with pink marble floors, tapestry-lined walls, crystal chandeliers and a 12ft waterfall. ‘‘It was the 80s, and my aesthetic at the time was over-the-top glitz, glamour and drama,’’ she recalled in her memoir Raising Trump (2017).
Behind the glittering facade, however, the Trumps’ marriage was far from perfect. After eight years together, in 1985, Donald had begun an affair with Marla Maples, a chorus girl and former beauty queen. Ivana remained unaware until Christmas 1989. Soon afterwards she handed him an ultimatum, only for Donald to choose Maples. He married Maples in 1993 before going on to marry Melanija (Melania) Knavs in 2005.
The divorce negotiations proved acrimonious, though Ivana eventually secured a US$25 million settlement.
She appeared to celebrate by purchasing a 110ft yacht and resuming her career on the catwalk. In reality the divorce hit her hard. The depth of her turmoil was revealed by her novels For Love Alone (1992) and Free to Love (1993), which featured strong heroines
‘‘Remember, girls: don’t get mad, get
everything.’’
Ivana Trump in the film The First Wives’ Club
battling greedy men and their mistresses. The former became a bestseller, as did her selfhelp book The Best is Yet to Come: Coping With Divorce and Enjoying Life Again (1995).
Trump (‘‘call me Ivana’’) was hailed as ‘‘the patron saint of scorned women’’. Her canonisation was confirmed by a cameo appearance in the film The First Wives’ Club (1996), starring Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton, during which she smiles her pearlescent lipsticky smile and trills the immortal line: ‘‘Remember, girls: don’t get mad, get everything.’’
More recognised than ever, she used her celebrity status to endorse various products. But tiring of lining other people’s pockets, she set up House of Ivana, selling make-up and clothes on American television shopping channels.As her image evolved she was no stranger to cosmetic surgery. ‘‘You only have one life,’’ she told The Times.
Ivana Marie Zelnicek was born in 1949 in Gottwaldov (now Zlin), Czechoslovakia. Underweight at birth, she spent the first months of her life in an incubator, emerging to become a sickly toddler. Her father toughened her up by teaching her to ski and swim when she was only 2.
In 1971 she had married Alfred Winklmayr, an Austrian ski instructor, who was her ticket to the West. Soon she had moved to Canada and then the US. After divorcing Winklmayr in 1973, Trump began working for a Canadian modelling agency. Three years later she was among models from the agency sent to New York to promote the Montreal Olympic Games and during a night on the town met Donald Trump. The pair were married nine months later and had three children, who survive her: Donald Jr, Ivanka and Eric.
In December 1995 she married Riccardo Mazzuchelli, an Italian engineer. Within months she discovered that his vast fortune was something of a mirage and she ended the marriage in 1997.
After presenting a 2006 reality TV show called Ivana Young Man, in which she helped wealthy older women to find younger men, she married her own ‘‘toy boy’’, Rossano Rubicondi, who was 23 years her junior. It was again shortlived.
Despite their contentious divorce she remained in touch with Donald and occasionally advised him when he was in the Oval Office. She would tell him to ‘‘be more calm, but Donald cannot be calm’’. – The Times