Ivana Trump, mother of Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric, died last Thursday in her home in New York City at the age of 73.
Last Friday, the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said Ivana Trump’s death came after a grave fall that resulted in blunt force injuries to the torso. She was found unconscious and near the bottom of her staircase.
People know Ivana as the first wife of former President Donald J. Trump, but she was much more than that. She was a businesswoman, a fashion designer, an author, and most importantly, a mother.
Prior to assuming the Trump name, she was born Ivana Zelníčková on February 20, 1949, in Czechoslovakia. From a young age, Ivana skied, and her competitive skills developed, which granted her a spot on the national ski team.
In 1971, she married Alfred Winklmayr, a close friend and ski instructor, to help her escape the communist regime that controlled Czechoslovakia. After receiving her Austrian passport just over a year later, she emigrated to Canada. A few short months later, she was freed from a friendship marriage and moved to New York City, where her glamorous career began.
While waiting for a table in a now-closed restaurant in New York City, Ivana met Donald Trump during a work trip in 1976.
“I turned to my girlfriend and I said I have good news and I have bad news,” Ivana told Jim Axelrod in a CBS interview back in 2017. “[The good news] is we’re going to get a table real fast. [The bad news] is this fellow behind me is going to go and sit with us.”
And just a few months later, she married that fellow and would stay married to him for 15 years.
For 7 years, Ivana worked as the senior executive at The Trump Organization and was the vice president for interior design. She also became the CEO of the Trump Castle Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City.
Ivana’s marriage came to a bitter end after the affair between Marla Maples and Donald Trump came to light.
But this didn’t stop Ivana’s success.
Ivana soon remarried in 1995, to Italian Entrepreneur Riccardo Mazzucchelli, which lasted just under 24 months. She sued him for $15 million due to a breach of their confidentiality agreement. He died in 2017 after battling melanoma.
Ivana married her fourth, and final, husband, Rossano Rubicondi, an Italian actor, in 2008. Though the marriage lasted about a year, their split was amicable, according to close friends of the pair. He died in 2021 after combatting melanoma for just about a year.
She developed her own lines of fashion including clothing and jewelry, sold internationally.
Business aside, Ivana was a talented author who published 4 books: For Love Alone (1992), Free to Love (1993), The Best Is Yet To Come: Coping With Divorce And Enjoying Life Again (1995), and her most recent, Raising Trump (2017).
As a former businesswoman, athlete and model, Ivana assumed a net worth of at least $100 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. By 2018, she had acquired homes in multiple locations: New York City, London, Miami and St. Tropez. These glamorous homes were uniquely designed at the hands of Ivana.
Services were held for Ivana at St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church in New York City on Wednesday.
Ivana Trump leaves behind a lasting, glamorous legacy as well as her 3 children, and 10 grandchildren.
“We think about all of our tomorrows, but we don’t know how many there are, so let’s start making the most of our Todays!” – Ivana Trump
