Ivana Trump was President-elect Donald Trump’s first wife. Born in 1949 in Gottwald, Czechoslovakia (now Zlín, Czech Republic), she rose to fame as a competitive skier. And thanks to her marriage to Austrian ski instructor Alfred Winklemayer in 1971, Ivana was able to travel frequently outside Czechoslovakia.
According to her book Raising Trump, the model met Donald three years after their 1973 divorce while on a trip to New York for a Canadian fashion show before the Montreal Olympics. The two married in 1977 and had three children: Donald Trump Jr. born in 1977, Ivanka Trump born in 1981, and Eric Trump born in 1984.
Their divorce was finalized in 1992 due to his affair with Marla Maples, whom he later married.
However, Ivana went on to be married to Riccardo Mazzucchelli for two years, followed by Rossano Rubicondi for less than a year – and Donald remained on good terms.
“Donald was brutal during our divorce,” she told ABC News in 2017. “He took the divorce as a business deal. You can’t lose. You have to win. So it took about two years. And once the final situation was straightened out, we just talked and we’re friends.”
Ivana passed away in 2022 at the age of 73. According to NBC News, the New York City medical examiner said she died from “blunt impact injuries” and the cause of death was an accident. A New York City official with direct knowledge added that the circumstances were consistent with a fall on the stairs of a New York apartment.
