Donald Trump’s wives have known fame through their marriage to him. Since he became the President of the United States of America, his current wife, Melania, has continuously been in the center of attention. But Trump had been married two times before. Most people do not know much about his first two wives, Ivana and Marla, which is why here you can discover who they are.
When we talk about Donald Trump’s wives, we have to mention they are wonderful and younger than him. Read further to find out more about them. Are you curious about the women who stole his heart?
Ivana Zelníčková
Ivana Marie Zelníčková is the first one of Donald Trump’s wives. She was born in 1949, in Czechoslovakia. She attended Charles University in Prague, and she built a career as a model and businesswoman. Before marrying Trump, she has been married for two years with an Australian real estate agent.
Ivana Zelníčková and Donald Trump
After she divorced him, she moved to Montréal, Canada, to be with George Syrovatka, her childhood friend, who had a boutique. At the same time, she became a model and worked for the most famous fur companies in Canada. Later, she broke up with Syrovatka and moved to New York, where she promoted the Montréal Olympics.
While she was living there, she met Donald Trump, and they married in 1977. Their wedding was extravagant, and at the time, they had continuously been on the first pages of the famous newspapers in New York. She and her husband had renovated the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York; they had built the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort in Atlantic City Jersey and the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.
Their marriage was blessed with two boys, Donald John Jr. and Eric Fredrick, and one girl, Ivana Marie, known as Ivanka. Ivana and Donald have eight grandchildren. Ivana was very much involved in The Trump Organization, where she worked as the Vice President of Interior Design, and later she became the president of The Trump Castle Hotel and Casino.
In 1988 she received the USA citizenship. She was appointed by her husband to become president of the Plaza Hotel, and she oversaw its restoration. In 1990, she was considered Hotelier of the Year. Her marriage to Trump was unsteady, although she supported him when his father died in October 1990. After that, there were rumors that he started an affair with Marla Maples, a beauty pageant queen from Georgia, especially because Ivana met Marla while the Trump family was on holiday in Aspen.
In 1991, Ivana and Trump got divorced, and she was the one who initiated it. Although she had signed a prenuptial agreement, she wanted to receive a lot more than it was established, because he cheated her. We do not know how much fortune she received because this issue was never made public. Three years later, Ivana married again, this time with Riccardo Mazzucchelli, and they got divorced in less than two years.
She became a businesswoman, launching lines of clothing, jewelry, and beauty products at the William Morris Agency. She had been writing articles for Globe from 1995 to 2010, where she had been responsible for the advice column. She had been involved with Roffredo Gaetani from 1997 until he died in 2005.
In 1998, she invested in the second-largest daily Croatian newspaper, buying 33% of it. In 1999, she had her lifestyle magazine, and she also became a writer, publishing several books. In 2006, she became a television personality, hosting a reality-dating series and participating in the UK’s Celebrity Big Brother. She married Rossano Rubicondi in April 2008. They had a $3 million wedding, however, in the same year, in December, they separated for three months, following a period when they had an on and off the relationship. She released an autobiography in 2017, where she wrote about her experience as a mother of Donald Trump’s children.
Marla Maples
Marla Ann Maples is the second one of Donald Trump’s wives. She was born in 1963, in Georgia, USA. When she was a teenager, she was diagnosed with Lyme disease. She attended Northwest Whitfield High School in Georgia, where she was declared Homecoming queen in 1981. In 1984, she was in second place at Miss Georgia USA, and in the next year, she won Miss Hawaiian Tropic.
Besides her career as a model, she was also an actress and a television personality, participating in Dancing with the Stars and other shows. She and Trump had met in 1989, and their relationship was very tumultuous. They were in the center of attention because Trump was still married to Ivana. They had a daughter named Tiffany Ariana Trump, who was born in 1993, and in the same year, they got married in an opulent ceremony with a thousand guests. Their marriage lasted until 1999. Marla is involved in some non-profit organizations and charities, specially dedicated to children.
She also had her talk show on the radio. In 2013, Marla released a new age album designed for deep meditation. She is a promoter of wellness and health. In 2000 she was close to release a memoir, but this was canceled afterward.
Melania Trump
Melania Knavs was born in 1970, in the Socialist Republic of Slovenia within Yugoslavia (today is known as Slovenia), and in 2001 she moved permanently in the USA. She obtained her citizenship in 2006. She began her career as a model when she was five years old. She grew in a modest apartment, and when she was a teenager, she moved to Ljubljana, where she attended the Secondary School of Design and Photography.
Melania Trump and Donald Trump
At the age of 16, she appeared in commercials, and she translated the Slovene version of her last name “Knavs” to the German version “Knauss.” At 18 years old, she signed a contract with a modeling agency from Milan. This brought her success, as her beauty was acknowledged, being named runner-up in the Jana Magazine “Look of the Year” contest. Later, she entered the University of Ljubljana, but she dropped out after one year. After that, she modeled for important fashion houses in Paris and Milan. She speaks four foreign languages (English, Italian, French, and German).
In 1995, she met Paolo Zampolli, Metropolitan Models co-owner, and friend of Donald Trump. Because Zampolli wanted to represent her, so in 1996 she had to move to New York City, USA, where he arranged her to live in an apartment from Towers on Union Square. She had to share that apartment with Matthew Atamian, who was a photographer. Melania had a hard time there, but in 1998 she met Trump at a party thrown by Zampolli at the Times Square nightclub, and her life changed because she started appearing on the covers of the most famous magazines, like Vanity Fair and Vogue. Trump relocated her family to New York to be close to her…
In 2004, Melania and Donald Trump got engaged, and in 2015, they were married at the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach, Florida, becoming the third one of Donald Trump’s wives. Their wedding reception was impressive and very expensive; a lot of celebrities had been invited. John Galliano made her wedding dress of the fashion house of Christian Dior, and its price was $200,000. In 2006, she gave birth to their son, Barron William Trump. Melania became the First Lady of the USA on January 20, 2017.