Trump ex-wife Ivana is found dead aged 73
IVANA Trump, the first wife of former US President Donald Trump, has died at the age of 73.
The former model and businesswoman passed away yesterday after going into cardiac arrest at her apartment on New York City’s Upper East Side.
Confirming her death last night, Mr Trump said in a statement: ‘I am very saddened to inform all of those that loved her, of which there are many, that Ivana Trump has passed away at her home in New York City.
‘She was a wonderful, beautiful, and amazing woman, who led a great and inspirational life.
‘Her pride and joy were her three children, Donald Jr, Ivanka, and Eric. She was so proud of them, as we were all so proud of her. Rest In Peace, Ivana!’
A joint statement by her children Eric, 38, Ivanka, 40, and Donald Jr, 44, described her as ‘a force in business, a world- class athlete, a radiant beauty, and caring mother and friend.’
It continued: ‘Ivana Trump was a survivor. She fled from communism and embraced this country. She taught her children about grit and toughness, compassion and determination.
‘She will be dearly missed by her mother, her three children and ten grandchildren.’
Mrs Trump, who grew up under communist rule in the former Czechoslovakia, married Donald Trump in 1977.
The couple divorced in 1992 after Mr Trump’s affair with actress Marla Maples was revealed.
The high-profile couple were regulars on the 1980s New York social circuit, while Mrs Trump also played a significant role in building her husband’s real estate empire.
Starting her career as a model, during her marriage to Mr Trump she served as vice-president for interior design at the Trump Organization, as well as managing the iconic Plaza Hotel in New York.
She also worked alongside Mr Trump on several of his early signature projects such as Trump Tower in New York and the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
After the divorce, Mrs Trump continued to feature regularly in US tabloids while also building her businesses. She developed lines of clothing, jewellery and beauty products, invested in real estate and wrote several books.
She also made a cameo in the 1996 film The First Wives Club, telling the trio of scorned women the movie was about: ‘Ladies, you have to be strong and independent, and remember… Don’t get mad. Get everything!’
In recent years, she split her time between New York, Miami and Saint Tropez. She appeared on the British version of Celebrity Big Brother in 2010.
Mrs Trump had been keeping a low profile after the death of her exhusband Rossano Rubicondi in October last year. She married the Italian actor in 2008 at Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago resort in Florida after six years of dating. Mrs Trump was 59 at the time while Mr Rubicondi was 36.
They divorced eight months later but engaged in an on-again, offagain relationship over the years.
Mr Rubicondi was Mrs Trump’s fourth husband. She married skier Alfred Winklmayr in order to obtain an Austrian passport and move to Canada in 1972. She also married Italian businessman Riccardo Mazzucchelli in November 1995. They divorced in 1997.
In recent years she had been on good terms with Mr Trump, with the glamorous socialite telling the New York Post in 2016 that she was both a supporter and adviser to the former president.
‘I suggest a few things,’ she told the paper. ‘ We speak before and after the appearances and he asks me what I thought.’
She said she once advised him to ‘be more calm’.
But she added: ‘Donald cannot be calm. He’s very outspoken. He just says it as it is.’
‘Don’t get mad, get everything’