Ivana Trump lifts the lid on messy divorce with Donald in intimate new memoir

Donald Trump with his first wife Ivana, who ha now published a book detailing their divorce
AFP/Getty Images
Chloe Chaplain7 October 2017

Ivana Trump has revealed what really went on between her and her former husband Donald during their messy divorce in an intimate new memoir.

The US President’s first wife has released a book pulling back the curtain on the tumultuous period of his life.

She also speculated as to whether her daughter, Ivanka Trump, could be considering following in her father’s footsteps and running for presidency herself after getting a taste for politics as Trump’s advisor.

Ivana and Donald infamously divorced in the early nineties – with details of their relationship splashed across New York's tabloids for weeks.

Donald Trump's Family Album

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Ivana, who was married to the real estate magnate from 1977 to 1992, writes in "Raising Trump" that she knew her marriage was over soon after a day in December 1989.

"This young blonde woman approached me out of the blue and said `I'm Marla and I love your husband. Do you?"' writes Ivana Trump.

"I said `Get lost. I love my husband.' It was unladylike but I was in shock."

Donald Trump dips Marla Maples after the couple married in a private ceremony
Bib Strong/AFP/Getty Images

She is referring to Trump's public affair with Marla Maples – which spawned the infamous "Best Sex I've Ever Had" headline in the New York Post in 1990.

Trump later went on to marry Maples in 1993.

"Raising Trump" is set to be released next week but an early copy was purchased by the Associated Press which reported on the revelations.

In the book, Ivana writes glowingly about her marriage to Trump and her prominent role at the Trump Organization.

She said the couple are on good terms now and claimed she was offered a White House position
Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images

But then she described the heartache that Trump's affair with Maples caused her and the couple's three children, Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric.

Donald Jr. didn't speak to his father for a year after the split.

"I can only shake my head at how it insane it was," Ivana wrote. "I couldn't turn on the television without hearing my name."

But she and the president have returned to far warmer terms. She writes that they speak about once a week and that she encourages him to keep using Twitter.

Donald Trump Jr with his mother Ivana Trump, the president's first wife
Jemal Countess/Getty Images

She said in a CBS News interview this week that she was offered the post of ambassador to the Czech Republic, her native country, but turned it down because she already has "a perfect life."

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the ambassadorship post.

Much of the book is spent recounting Ivana Trump's childhood in Europe, her burgeoning modelling career in New York and Trump's courtship.

She writes that, at their first meeting, Trump secured her and friends a table at a hot Manhattan restaurant, paid the check and chauffeured her back to her hotel in a giant Cadillac.

"My instincts told me that Donald was smart and funny - an all-America good guy," Ivana Trump writes.

Her children also contribute passages to the book, and Ivana Trump muses that her former husband may not be the only Trump to call the White House home.

"Maybe in fifteen years, she could run for president?" she writes about her daughter, Ivanka, before musing about her own possible title.

"First Lady? Holds no appeal for me personally. First Mother? That could work."

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