Ivana Trump smiles at her belated birthday party at the Pangea Soleil club during the 59th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, May 24, 2006.
Mario Anzuoni Reuters
Ivana Trump, Donald Trump’s first wife and the mother of his three oldest children, has died, the former president said Thursday.
“I am deeply saddened to inform all those who loved her, of which there are many, that Ivana Trump has passed away at her home in New York City,” the former president said in a post on his social media platform. , Social Truth. . “She was a wonderful, beautiful, wonderful woman who lived a wonderful and inspiring life. Her pride and joy were her three children, Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric. She was so proud of them, as we all were. proud of her. rest in peace, Ivana!”
Ivana Trump was 73 years old. The cause of her death is unknown.
A former model born in Czechoslovakia, the former Ivana Zelnickova married then-businessman Donald Trump in 1977 and held key positions in his businesses, including the Trump Organization, during their 15-year marriage. The couple had three children – Donald Trump Jr., 44, Ivanka Trump, 40, and Eric Trump, 38.
In a statement, the Trump children remembered their mother as “an extraordinary woman — a force in business, a world-class athlete, a radiant beauty and caring mother and friend.”
“Ivana Trump was a survivor. She fled communism and embraced this country. She taught her children about courage and toughness, compassion and determination. She will be greatly missed by her mother, her three children and her ten grandchildren.” they wrote.
American real estate mogul Donald Trump with his first wife, Ivana (nee Zelnickova) at the Costume Institute Gala held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, December 9, 1985.
Tom Gates | Archive Photos | Getty Images
Known as Ivana and The Donald in the city’s tabloids, their marriage came to a dramatic end in 1992 after reports linked Donald Trump to model and actress Marla Maples, who would become Trump’s second wife. The messy divorce dominated the front pages of the city’s newspapers, but the pair remained close after the split.
“I have the number directly to the White House,” she said in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America” in late 2017, months after her ex-husband became president. “But I’m not going to call her out there because Melania is there and I don’t want to cause any kind of jealousy or anything like that because I’m basically Trump’s first wife, OK? I’m the first lady, OKAY?”
Promoting her memoir, The Rise of Trump, Ivana Trump told CBS that same year that her ex-husband had offered her the US ambassadorship to the Czech Republic, but she declined because “I like my freedom.”
Ivana Trump maintained a successful career after her split from Trump, running several of her own business ventures, including a cosmetics line, writing numerous books, and writing various advice columns.
Ivana Trump was married a total of four times and separated from her last husband, Rossano Rubicondi, an Italian actor, in 2008. She blamed her divorce from her husband two decades her junior on the couple wanting to live in different cities .
She said in a statement at the time, “Que sera sera!” (Whatever will be, will be!)
