Ivana Trump, the ex-wife of former US President Donald Trump, died at 73. The family, in a statement to the Daily Beast, called her a “survivor” and said “She fled from communism and embraced this country. She taught her children about grit and toughness, compassion and determination.” 

She was born Ivana Zelníčková, in Communist-run Czechoslovakia, in 1949. A competitive skier and model, Ivana moved to Montreal in the early 1970s. She met Trump in 1976, and the two were married three weeks later. 

While Ivana was initially an “appendage” from what Daily Beast reported, she began to flourish as a businessperson and after having two children, started working outside of New York half of the week. Trump made her the chief executive of a hotel in Atlantic City in 1985 and as per Daily Beast, Ivana “loved it”. 

The two had three children – Donald Trump Jr, Ivanka, and Eric. However, Ivana and Donald’s relationship grew strained gradually, with the tycoon becoming increasingly jealous of the media coverage his ambitious wife drew. 

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His affair with actor Marla Maples was another nail in the coffin and Trump’s divorce from Ivana was bitter and heavily covered by tabloids at the time. 

Ivana, however, kept her husband’s title and over $14 million, besides a 45-room Connecticut mansion. Since then, the two moved past the acrimony because Ivana told ABC in an earlier interview that she had a “direct” line to the White House and spoke to Trump at least once in two weeks. 

After Trump, Ivana married Italian businessman Riccardo Mazzucchelli, and then tied the knot with Italian Count Roffredo Gaetani dell’Aquila. Ivana then got married to Rossano Rubicondi, who died in 2021. 

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Ivana was married before she met Trump too. Her first husband was Alfred Winklmayr, with whom Ivana stayed married from 1971 to 1973.