Tragic Details About Donald Trump's First Wife Ivana

The following article includes allegations of sexual assault.

During the 1980s, real estate developer Donald Trump reigned over New York City with the construction of the Trump Tower, a glittering 58-story monument to conspicuous consumption on Fifth Avenue. He generated even more headlines when he purchased the famed Plaza Hotel, one of the Big Apple's most iconic landmarks.

At his side during those high-flying years was Donald's first wife, Ivana Trump, who would later become brutally honest about him. The future president enlisted his then-spouse — who died in 2022 at the age of 73 — to run the Plaza as its new manager. Her salary, her then-husband once famously declared, was $1 and as many dresses as she could purchase (which, The New York Times estimated, could have cost him as much as $1.5 million).

Yet, behind all the glitz and glamor, the marriage was crumbling. There were rumors of infidelity, allegations of sexual assault, and a divorce that turned out to be as public as it was ugly. In fact, she experienced some truly heartbreaking circumstances throughout a life of extreme wealth and equally extreme heartbreak. To find out more, read on to discover tragic details about Donald Trump's first wife, Ivana.

Before she took on the Trump name, Ivana Trump was born Ivana Marie Zelníčková in Zlin, a small town in what was then known as Czechoslovakia, part of the Soviet Union. As a child, she demonstrated keen athletic ability as a competitive skier. She eventually became a member of the country's national ski team. Skiing not only paved the way for her future, it also instilled her with a steely determination and self-reliance. "When you are going down a mountain at 80 miles an hour, you cannot count on Mama or Papa," she once told People. "You have to count only on Ivana."

She left Zlin to attend Charles University in Prague. That was where she met Alfred Winklmayr, an Austrian skier. She married him — not because she was in love, but in order to get a passport that would allow her to travel out of the Soviet Union without having to defect, which she knew would spell bad news for her family.

After serving as an alternate on the Czech ski team during the 1972 Olympics in Sapporo, Japan, she wound up in Montreal. Once she was safely ensconced in the west, she summarily divorced Winklmayr, ending their brief, transactional marriage.

While attending Prague's Charles University, the future Ivana Trump met her first real love, Jirí Staidl. A renowned Czech poet and songwriter, Staidl wrote her love songs and poems. He also had a fondness for alcohol and a love of fast cars; according to Vanity Fair, a friend once noted that he "drove like he was grabbing death by the ass."

One night in October 1973, Staidl was driving his sports car — fast, as usual. According to a newspaper report, he had "several shots in him and an unknown beauty in the passenger seat" when a truck plowed into his vehicle, sending him flying out of the car and into a guardrail. He died instantly. The "unknown beauty" miraculously walked away from the crash unscathed, with that newspaper identifying her only be her initials: I.Z. "It probably was Ivana in the car, but she has denied it, and I have never pressed her further," George Syrovatka, a former boyfriend who set up her passport marriage, told Vanity Fair.

After Staidl's death, Syrovatka invited the 24-year-old to join him in Montreal. There, she began gaining a reputation as a model, which would ultimately land her on the radar of future husband Donald Trump.

Ivana Zelníčková was 27 when she arrived in New York to participate in a fashion show attended by Donald Trump. They began dating, and tied the knot in 1977. She became pregnant on their honeymoon, with their first child, Donald Jr., arriving nine months later. He was followed by sister Ivanka, and brother Eric.

The marriage came to a screeching halt in December 1989. While the Trumps enjoyed a Christmas ski vacation in Aspen, Donald was simultaneously, scandalously romancing his mistress, actor and singer Marla Maples. It all came to a head when Maples walked up to Ivana, and told her (as reported by the Daily Mail), "I'm Marla and I love your husband. Do you?" Stung by the humiliation of that infidelity, Ivana confronted her husband on a ski slope — where he cowardly skied away. Reports at the time claimed that Ivana — a far better skier than him — raced past him and skied backwards while screaming and chastising him as they barreled down the hill.

She filed for divorce. To say it was not amicable is an understatement.

While testifying in her divorce proceedings, Ivana Trump made a shocking accusation against her husband. That allegation appeared in a deposition, which didn't become public until making it into the hands of writer Harry Hurt III and appearing in his 1993 book, "Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump."

According to excerpts from the book that resurfaced in the Daily Beast in 2015, Ivana described a 1989 incident in which her then-husband had angrily confronted her after a painful botched "scalp reduction" operation on his head. He grabbed Ivana's hair, ripping out clumps, presumably so she could feel the same pain he was experiencing. He then proceeded to tear her clothes off and allegedly sexually assaulted her. Afterwards, she fled to another part of their apartment and spent the rest of the night weeping behind a locked door.

At the time the book came out, Donald denied the account. So did Ivana, sort of. Prior to the book's publication, Donald's lawyer insisted that a special reader's note be added, featuring a statement attributed to Ivana. "During a deposition given by me in connection with my matrimonial case, I stated that my husband had raped me," the statement read. "[O]n one occasion during 1989, Mr. Trump and I had marital relations in which he behaved very differently toward me than he had during our marriage. As a woman, I felt violated, as the love and tenderness, which he normally exhibited towards me, was absent. I referred to this as a 'rape,' but I do not want my words to be interpreted in a literal or criminal sense."

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

Ivana Trump's divorce from Donald Trump was particularly nasty, and the New York media had a field day; coverage of the divorce dominated the front pages of the city's tabloids for 11 consecutive days. "I can only shake my head at how it insane it was," Ivana wrote in her 2017 memoir, "Raising Trump" (via People). "I couldn't turn on the television without hearing my name." To be fair, the high profile she attained during the divorce was at least partly of her own doing. As Bob Collacello told Vanity Fair, Ivana had learned how to generate PR from her ex. "They live for publicity. It's like a drug for them," he said. "A lady getting a divorce — a lady — doesn't get photographed for getting a divorce ... Ivana did the cover of Vogue!"

According to The New York Times, the divorce was granted in 1990 due to the "cruel and inhuman treatment" he'd doled out to her. In the settlement, she received $14 million — a hefty fee, but a far cry from her ex's net worth (reportedly estimated at well over $1 billion at the time) — and hardly one of the most egregiously expensive divorces in Hollywood history. One key feature of the settlement was a gag order that prevented Ivana from saying anything publicly about her marriage.

When she wrote her 1995 novel, "For Love Alone," it infuriated her ex-husband. Believing the supposedly fictional story to be a lightly cloaked account of their marriage, he slapped a $25 million lawsuit on her, claiming she violated the confidentiality clause in their divorce settlement. She launched an appeal to lift the gag order, but was ultimately unsuccessful.

When the dust finally settled after her divorce from Donald Trump, Ivana Trump moved on with her life. She relocated to London, and entered a relationship with Kenneth Lieberman — who was unfortunately quite married. When he reconciled with his wife, she consoled herself in the arms of Riccardo Mazzucchelli, who she quickly wed in 1995.

At the time, Ivana was establishing herself as an entrepreneur in her own right, becoming a popular fixture on the Home Shopping Channel with her line of clothing and accessories. Her husband, however, grew jealous of her success, and his Italian machismo left his ego bruised. As Ivana's friend, Nikki Haskell, told Vanity Fair, he "felt he was sort of morphing into Mr. Riccardo Trump."

It all came to a head when they took a trip to Las Vegas and took in a performance by singer Wayne Newton. When Newton pointed out Ivana in the audience, and identified her as Ivana Trump — not Mrs. Riccardo Mazzucchelli — that proved to be the final straw. "Riccardo got up and left and we never saw him again," said Haskell. "That was the end of the marriage." They divorced, just 20 months after their wedding. "I'm very sad, I cry. I love Riccardo. This is a tremendously hard time for me. It's very painful to go through six years of relationship with a person and to be disappointed or filing for divorce or whatever," Ivana told People.

After divorcing Riccardo Mazzucchelli, Ivana Trump was vacationing in Rome when she met Count Roffredo Gaetani dell' Aquila d' Aragona di Laurenzana Lovatelli. A wealthy playboy from a storied Italian family, he quickly fell into a torrid affair with her. She would regale her friends with tales of their bedroom antics. "She would tell everybody that he was the best lover. And he was a gentleman. And he was very protective," friend Vivian Serota told Vanity Fair.

The Italian aristocrat even received the seal of approval from her ex-husband. "Wilfredo is a terrific guy," Donald Trump told The New York Times (via Vanity Fair). "I hope they both have a good time spending the money that I gave to Ivana."

In December 2005, Count Roffredo was driving in Tuscany, on his way to visit his mother at the family's castle. He fell asleep while driving, and the car veered off the road. He suffered fatal injuries in the crash and died at age 52.

After experiencing that tragedy, Ivana Trump wound up with the man who would become her fourth husband, Rossano Rubicondi. Her friends were suspicious of his motives — understandable, given that he was flat broke and more than 20 years her junior. She was unconcerned. "I'd rather be a babysitter than a nursemaid," she wrote in her memoir (via Vanity Fair).

According to her friends, it was Ivana paying the bills. "Signora was a mega-financial support for him," Paolo Alavian, owner of one of Trump's favorite restaurants, told the magazine. "He always wanted something," added another friend, Baroness Marianne von Brandstetter. Their recollections of Rubicondi were that of a guy with endless ideas and little follow through. "The scheme of the week," her friend, Nikki Haskell, told the magazine. Despite the warnings of her friends, she decided to pull the trigger on matrimony for a fourth time. "She honestly believed that if she married Rossano, he might start behaving himself, and he would feel more secure," Trump's friend, Liz Brewer, said. "But that was unfortunately not the case."

Two weeks before their 2008 wedding — held at her ex-husband's Florida mansion, Mar-a-Lago — police responded to a "disturbance" at her home. The fight was reportedly over money; he demanded a cut of the millions in wedding sponsorships she was receiving and refused to sign the marriage certificate unless she coughed up some cash. She gave him $75,000, and they walked down the aisle. Immediately after the nuptials, the groom flew to Italy to appear in a reality show, while the bride spent her honeymoon alone in Palm Beach.

None of Ivana Trump's friends were surprised when her marriage to Rossano Rubicondi ended less than a year later. After finalizing their divorce, she eventually reconciled with her fourth ex-husband, and even appeared together on the Italian version of "Dancing with the Stars." The couple split up again, this time apparently for good. "The relationship just ran its course," Trump told Page Six in 2019. "We had a good time and are friends. The split was amicable."

In 2020, he called her from Italy, revealing he was ill. She arranged for him to fly to New York and join her. He'd been diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma, and doctors had given him just a few months to live. Despite her joking line about preferring to be a babysitter than a nursemaid, that's exactly what she became, taking care of him as his life ebbed away during his final months. 

He died in October 2021, at the age of 49. "I'm devastated," Trump told People.

The death of ex-husband Rossano Rubicondi hit Ivana Trump severely hard, according to her friends in New York. "I think Rossano's death sank signora. She was very, very down; we could see it," restaurant owner Paolo Alavian told New York magazine.

In the years after that, her health declined. At one point, she fell, injuring her hip. That injury made walking painful for her. A doorman in a building on her street shared his observation with The Sun. "She used to always wear high heels and walk straight up," the doorman said. "After he died, she didn't come out as much. She wore flats and walked hunched over with a cane."

She'd also been drinking more after Rubicondi's death and had struggled with her isolation during the pandemic. According to Thomas Makkos, owner of another of her favorite restaurants, he noticed a big difference in her after COVID-19 lockdowns were relaxed. "She aged in a way you were not used to," he told the New York Post. "She aged very rapidly the last one year ... She seemed a little down, she seemed frail."

Her hip injury continued to linger, and walking became increasingly difficult for her. "We had to help her home," restaurateur Thomas Makkos told the New York Post.

Meanwhile, those who knew her grew concerned that she'd fall again while walking up and down the elaborate staircase in her Manhattan townhouse. Friends urged her to sell the place and move into a one-level apartment or a hotel. "I was more concerned about her falling down those stairs than anything else, and she adamantly refused to move," her friend Nikki Haskell, told New York magazine. On the morning of July 14, 2022, her housekeeper found her lifeless body at the bottom of that very staircase. She was 73 years old.

The medical examiner subsequently concluded that she'd died from blunt force trauma, among the tragic details discovered in Ivana Trump's postmortem report. The fatal injuries she sustained were inflicted by falling down that staircase. "There are all these pictures of her on that stairway," noted Haskell. "When you think about how you are going to end your life, did she ever once think that is how it's gonna happen?"

Ivana Trump's funeral was held at St. Vincent Ferrer Roman Catholic Church in New York City's Upper East Side. In attendance were her three children and ex-husband, Donald Trump.

She was buried at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey. Her grave, marked by a modest headstone, was situated near the tee on the first hole of the golf course. Theories emerged that the site of the grave was chosen because New Jersey tax code would guarantee massive tax breaks for the country club if it were used as a cemetery.

Two years after the burial, a photo of Ivana's grave was published by the Daily Mail, overgrown with weeds and long uncut grass. According to a spokesperson for the golf club, plans were in place for a larger — and presumably more impressive — headstone to replace the small marker; It hadn't been done yet, said the spokesperson, because the soil and foundation still required time before it would be completely set.