Ivana Trump, first wife of Donald Trump, dies at 73

New York: Ivana Trump, a skier-turned-businesswoman who formed half of a publicity power couple in the 1980s as the first wife of former president Donald Trump and mother of his oldest children, has died in New York City. She was 73.

“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,” Trump posted on social media platform Truth Social on Friday (AEST). “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!”

Ivana Trump has passed away aged 73.Credit: AP

Neither the Trump family statement nor the post from the former president mentioned the cause of death, but a police spokesperson said she was found dead on the stairs inside her apartment and that foul play was not suspected.

The New York Times and AP citing unnamed law enforcement officials, said it appeared accidental and she may have fallen down the stairs.

The Fire Department of New York said paramedics responded to a call for a cardiac arrest.

“It’s been a very sad day, a very sad day,” Eric Trump said as he left his mother’s apartment building near Central Park.

In a statement, he and his siblings called her “an incredible woman — a force in business, a world-class athlete, a radiant beauty and caring mother and friend,” and a survivor.

“She fled from communism and embraced this country,” the three said in a statement. “She taught her children about grit and toughness, compassion and determination.”

A Czech-born ski racer and sometime model, Ivana Trump married the future president in 1977.

She became an icon in her own right, dripping with ’80s style and elegance, complete with her signature beehive hairdo. She influenced the look of the over-the-top Patsy Stone in the classic British sitcom Absolutely Fabulous, with the character extolling Ivana as “tremendous” in one episode.

Trump herself would eventually appear in the 1996 hit film The First Wives Club with the now-famous line: “Ladies, you have to be strong and independent, and remember, don’t get mad, get everything”.

The Trumps became partners in love and business. She managed one of his Atlantic City casinos and helped make Trump Tower an image of ’80s success (or excess, to some).

She overruled the architects to get an 18-metre waterfall installed in the Trump Tower atrium, and she went to an Italian quarry to pick out the rosy-beige Breccia Perniche marble that famously lines its floors and walls, according to Donald Trump biographer Wayne Barrett.

Barbara Res, a former Trump Organisation executive who was in charge of the skyscraper’s construction, recalled Ivana helping the decorator and taking a strong interest in such details as the doormen’s uniforms.

“She did all that to impress Donald, to win his approval,” Res said. “She was travelling back and forth all the time, and leaving her kids. She had a tremendous work ethic.”

The two were fixtures of New York’s see-and-be-seen scene before their equally public, and messy, 1992 divorce. Donald Trump had met his next wife, Marla Maples.

“I couldn’t turn on the television without hearing my name,” Ivana wrote in her book.

During the split, she accused Trump of rape in a sworn statement in the early 1990s. She later said that she didn’t mean it literally, but rather that she felt violated.

Donald Trump would say at times that he regretted having Ivana join him in business and blamed it for the unravelling of their marriage.

Donald Trump and then-wife, Ivana Trump after she was sworn in as a United States citizen in New York in May 1988.Credit: AP

“I think that putting a wife to work is a very dangerous thing,” he told ABC News in the early ’90s. “If you’re in business for yourself, I really think it’s a bad idea to put your wife working for you,” he said, complaining that when she turned into a businessperson, “a softness disappeared”.

Nevertheless, Ivana ultimately remained friendly with her ex-husband, whom she famously called “The Donald”. She enthusiastically backed his 2016 White House run, saying he would “make big changes” in the United States, and told the New York Post that she was giving him suggestions on his campaign.

“We speak before and after the appearances and he asks me what I thought.” She advised him to be more calm, she said. “But Donald cannot be calm ... He’s very outspoken. He just says it as it is.”

However supportive, she occasionally ruffled feathers. In 2017, while promoting her book, she told Good Morning America that she spoke with the then-president about every two weeks and had his direct White House number, but didn’t want to call too frequently because of then-first lady Melania Trump’s presence.

“I don’t want to cause any kind of jealousy or something like that because I’m basically first Trump wife, OK?” Ivana said with a laugh. “I’m first lady, OK?”

Melania’s spokesperson at the time said there was “clearly no substance to this statement from an ex, this is unfortunately only attention-seeking and self-serving noise”.

Her death came during a fraught week for the Trump family. Two of her children, Donald jnr and Ivanka, and the former president are due to appear in coming days for questioning in the New York attorney-general’s civil investigation into the family’s business practices.

Ivana Trump was born Ivana Zelnickova in 1949 in the Czechoslovak city of Gottwaldov, formerly Zlin, which had just been renamed by the communists who took over the country in 1948.

She was married four times, most recently to Italian actor Rossano Rubicondi. The two divorced in 2009 after a year of marriage but continued to see each other off and on until 2019, when she told the New York Post the relationship had run its course. He died last year of cancer at 49.

AP

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here.