By the evening edition.
From his career as a real estate mogul to his return to the White House, Donald Trump has been married three times. Who are the women who lived in the shadow of the sulphurous businessman and politician, elected 47ᵉ President of the United States this Wednesday, November 6?
Her billionaire husband was elected this Wednesday, November 6, 2024 as the 47th president of the United States of America. Melania Trump is therefore preparing to become the First Lady again and return to the White House, four years after leaving it. Despite the controversies, Donald Trump’s discreet wife remains a loyal support for the sulphurous politician, since their marriage in 2005. She notably appeared at his side during his first speech, after his victory.
Melania Trump is actually Donald Trump’s third wife. Long before entering politics, the businessman was first married to Ivana Zelnickova and Marla Maples, with whom he had four children. This is the story of the three women in his life.
Ivan Zelnickova
Former Czechoslovakian ski champion and model, Ivana Zelnickova was married to Donald Trump for almost fifteen years, from 1977 to 1992, after a first marriage. The couple had three children: Donald Junior, Ivanka and Eric. Born in 1949, she emigrated to Canada to launch a career as a model, before meeting her future husband. With him, she worked on real estate projects, including the Trump Tower, but also on a hotel and a casino. Their marriage ended with the revelation of the affair between the billionaire and Marla Maples, a beauty queen from Georgia whom he then married in 1993. Ivana will draw a book of advice from it: The best is yet to come: how to digest a divorce and enjoy life again.
Ivana Zelnickova subsequently remarried twice. She ventured into fashion and reality TV shows, while remaining on good terms with Donald Trump. She even announced that she would vote for him in 2017. A few months after her former husband was installed in the White House, she published Raising Trump (“Raising the Trumps”), a book in which she recounted having taught her children “the value of money, not lying, cheating or stealing, respect for others”.
Ivana Zelnickova died accidentally on July 14, 2022 at the age of 73: she fell down a staircase in her Manhattan apartment. According to the conclusions of the investigation, she was found unconscious and died of trauma. Donald Trump announced his death the same day, via a press release published on social networks.
The relationship between Donald Trump and his first wife was at the heart of a controversy during the recent election campaign. Released in cinemas a month before the election, the film The Apprenticededicated to the billionaire’s youth, implied in a scene that the candidate had raped her. On his Truth Social network, Donald Trump denounced a “cheap, defamatory and disgusting political fake film”revealed Gala. This scene would however have been inspired, according to Daily Mailfrom a deposition in which Ivana declared having been attacked by her husband, while she was going through a divorce, in 1990.
Marla Maples
“Marla is a wonderful woman. » In September 1991, Donald Trump paid tribute to the woman who would become his wife two years later: Marla Maples. Almost ruined by the financial crisis of 1990, the real estate tycoon, future president of the United States, had just separated from his first wife Ivana after the revelation of his affair with Marla, a beauty queen and aspiring actress. She was nicknamed “Georgia Peach”, in reference to her home state. Their daughter Tiffany was born in October 1993. Two months later, the two were married in a grand ceremony.
But the happiness did not last: once divorced in 1999, Marla Maples left New York for California, where she raised Tiffany in relatively modest circumstances. Her acting career never took off. Viewers have seen her in television series like Investigations in Palm Springs. She played her own role in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air et A nanny from hell. In early 2016, during the Republican primary campaign, Marla Maples participated in the American edition of Dancing with the Stars. Marla Maples also created a website to market products dedicated to well-being.
Melania Knavs
She has been married to Donald Trump since 2005. Born April 26, 1970 in Novo Mesto (south-eastern Slovenia), Melania Trump is a former Slovenian model. In 1998, she met businessman Donald Trump. Her notoriety grew when she appeared with him on the show The Howard Stern Show. Her relationship with Trump is highlighted again on the reality show The Apprenticewhich he presented himself.
She obtained a permanent resident card in the United States in 2001 and American citizenship in 2006. After their marriage in 2005, the couple gave birth to Barron William Trump in 2006. Her parents then lived with her in Trump Tower, in New York.
After Donald Trump’s first election in 2016, his wife took over from Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama as First Lady. Not particularly enthusiastic about taking an active role in the White House, she remained relatively quiet during the first four years of her presidency. After bidding farewell to the American people in January 2021, she reacted to the riots which led to the invasion of the Capitol. In a text published on the White House website, she declared: “Our nation must heal its wounds peacefully. I want to leave no doubt: I absolutely condemn the violence that occurred at the Capitol. Violence is never acceptable. »
During the last election campaign, she published her memoirs. A work which caused controversy following a passage in which she declared herself pro-abortion. “It is imperative to guarantee women the autonomy to decide their preference regarding having children, based on their personal beliefs”she wrote, far from her husband’s positions.
