"She was an exquisite, lovely, and superb lady, who led an important and inspirational life," Donald Trump mentioned of Ivana on his Reality Social platform.
Ivana Trump, a skier-turned-businesswoman who shaped half of a publicity energy couple within the Eighties as the primary spouse of former President Donald Trump and mom of his oldest youngsters, has died in New York Metropolis, her household introduced Thursday. She was 73.
The previous president posted on his social media app that she died at her Manhattan residence.
“She was an exquisite, lovely, and superb lady, who led an important and inspirational life,” he wrote on Reality Social. The couple shared three youngsters, Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric.
“She was so happy with them, as we have been all so happy with her,” he wrote. “Relaxation In Peace, Ivana!”
Two folks acquainted with the matter informed The Related Press that police are investigating whether or not Ivana Trump fell down the steps and imagine her dying was unintended.
She was discovered unconscious close to a staircase within the residence, the folks mentioned. The folks couldn't focus on the matter publicly and spoke to the AP on situation of anonymity. The health worker’s workplace will decide an official explanation for dying.
“It’s been a really unhappy day, a really unhappy day,” Eric Trump mentioned as he left his mom’s residence close to Central Park.
In a press release, he and his siblings referred to as her “an unimaginable lady — a drive in enterprise, a world-class athlete, a radiant magnificence and caring mom and good friend,” and a survivor.
“She fled from communism and embraced this nation,” the three mentioned in a press release. “She taught her youngsters about grit and toughness, compassion and willpower.”
A Czech-born ski racer and someday mannequin, she met the long run president within the Seventies and rapidly perceived him as “good and humorous — an all-America good man,” as she wrote in a 2017 e-book. The couple married in 1977.
She grew to become an icon in her personal proper, dripping with ’80s model and glamor, full along with her signature blonde updo. She influenced the look of the over-the-top Patsy Stone within the basic British sitcom Completely Fabulous, with the character extolling Ivana as “great” in a single episode.
Trump herself would ultimately seem within the 1996 hit movie The First Wives Membership with the now-famous line, “Women, you must be robust and unbiased, and keep in mind, don’t get mad, get every little thing.”
The Trumps grew to become companions in love and enterprise. She managed one in all his Atlantic Metropolis casinos and helped make Trump Tower a picture of ’80s success (or extra, to some).
She overruled the architects to get a 60-foot waterfall put in in Trump Tower’s atrium, and she or he went to an Italian quarry to pick the rosy-beige Breccia Pernice marble that famously traces its flooring and partitions, in keeping with Donald Trump biographer Wayne Barrett.
Barbara Res, a former Trump Group govt who was answerable for the skyscraper’s building, recalled Ivana serving to the decorator and taking a robust curiosity in such particulars because the doormen’s uniforms.
“She did all that to impress Donald, to win his approval,” Res mentioned. “She was touring forwards and backwards on a regular basis, and leaving her children. She had an incredible work ethic.”
The 2 have been fixtures of New York’s see-and-be-seen scene earlier than their equally public, and messy, 1992 divorce. Donald Trump had met his subsequent spouse, Marla Maples.
“I couldn’t activate the tv with out listening to my identify,” Ivana Trump wrote in her e-book.
Through the cut up, Ivana Trump accused him of rape in a sworn assertion within the early Nineteen Nineties. She later mentioned that she didn’t imply it actually, however quite that she felt violated.
Donald Trump would say at instances that he regretted having Ivana be a part of him in enterprise and blamed it for the unraveling of their marriage.
“I believe that placing a spouse to work is a really harmful factor,” he informed ABC Information within the early ’90s. “When you’re in enterprise for your self, I actually assume it’s a nasty thought to place your spouse working for you,” he mentioned, complaining that when she was a businessperson, “a softness disappeared.”
Nonetheless, Ivana finally remained pleasant along with her ex-husband, whom she famously referred to as “The Donald.” She enthusiastically backed his 2016 White Home run, saying he would “make huge modifications” in the USA, and informed the New York Publish that she was giving him ideas on his marketing campaign.
“We converse earlier than and after the appearances and he asks me what I assumed,” she mentioned. She mentioned she suggested him to “be extra calm.”
“However Donald can't be calm,” she added. “He’s very outspoken. He simply says it as it's.”
Nonetheless supportive, she sometimes ruffled feathers.
In 2017, whereas selling her e-book, she informed Good Morning America that she spoke with the then-president about each two weeks and had his direct White Home quantity, however didn’t need to name too steadily due to then-first woman Melania Trump’s presence.
“I don’t need to trigger any type of jealousy or one thing like that as a result of I’m principally first Trump spouse, OK?” Ivana mentioned with fun. “I’m first woman, OK?”
Melania Trump’s spokesperson on the time responded, saying there was “clearly no substance to this assertion from an ex, that is sadly solely attention-seeking and self-serving noise.”
Ivana Trump had continued her enterprise ventures in recent times, selling an Italian weight-loss weight-reduction plan plan in 2018.
“Well being is crucial factor we have now. Let’s hold it that manner,” she mentioned on the time.
Her dying got here throughout a fraught week for the Trump household. Two of her youngsters, Donald Jr. and Ivanka, and the previous president are as a result of seem in coming days for questioning within the New York legal professional basic’s civil investigation into the household’s enterprise practices.
Ivana Trump was born Ivana Zelnickova in 1949 within the Czechoslovak metropolis of Gottwaldov, previously Zlin, which had simply been renamed by the Communists who took over the nation in 1948.
She was married 4 instances, most lately to Italian actor Rossano Rubicondi. The 2 divorced in 2009 after a 12 months of marriage however continued to see one another on and off till 2019, when she informed the New York Publish the connection had run its course. He died final 12 months of most cancers at 49.