SPURRING THE SPLIT
Wife family $$ eased escape from Don Jr.
Vanessa Trump endured her husband’s philandering for years, but filed for divorce only last month as she and her family recently shared in a multimillion-dollar windfall related to her late father’s investments, The Post has learned. Vanessa Trump’s dad, Charles Haydon, died in February 2005, just months before Vanessa married Donald Trump Jr., President Trump’s eldest son, in an elaborate ceremony at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, the Trumps’ vacation home. Haydon was a storied Manhattan lawyer whose clients included Marilyn Monroe and Broadway producer Abe Hirschfeld. He left an estate valued at $2.5 million to his wife Bonnie Kay Haydon, according to court records. But documents filed in connection to Haydon’s estate in Manhattan Surrogate’s Court do not list any of the deceased lawyer’s assets. Sources close to the Haydon family said that their recent windfall came from stocks and other invest- ments that had matured since Haydon’s death.
“I can’t speculate as to how much they received, but it was life-changing,” a source said.
Last fall, Bonnie Haydon, 71, bought a sprawling Fifth Avenue penthouse, paying $6.4 million in cash, according to public records. She purchased the lavish apartment from the widow of former Fox News chief Roger Ailes.
With her family’s newfound financial security, an emboldened Vanessa, 40, finally filed for divorce from Trump Jr.
“There have been numerous affairs,” said the source. “This divorce has been in the works for a long time.”
The divorce is contested, according to a source close to the family, and lawyers from both sides are currently in negotiations over the custody of the couple’s five young children. After 12 years of marriage, the couple has three sons and two daughters, aged between 3 and 10.
They are also wrangling over their prenuptial agreement — the same one used by President Trump in his marriages, the source told The Post.
In 2010, while Vanessa, a former model and actress, was pregnant with the couple’s third child, Trump Jr. allegedly had an affair with Aubrey O’Day, a former Playboy model whom he met while she was appearing on “The Celebrity Apprentice.”
Haydon did not return messages seeking comment. David Feureisen, a Westchester lawyer who is representing Vanessa in her divorce, did not respond to requests for comment.
Calls to Blank Rome, the Manhattan firm representing Trump Jr., were not returned.