Content Warning: This article includes references to sexual assault, infidelity, and emotional trauma. Reader discretion is advised.
At one glance, Ivana Trump’s life looks perfect. In her cameo appearance in the 1996 film The First Wives Club, Donald Trump’s first wife said, “Ladies, you have to be strong and independent. And remember, don’t get mad — get everything.” And, she did have everything: from being a fashion entrepreneur and a self-help writer to acquiring a 45-room mansion, and four husbands.
However, despite having it all, Ivana’s life was actually far from perfect. Her marriages were never without trials and tribulations. From her fallout with Donald Trump in 1992 to her divorce from her fourth husband, Rossano Rubicondi, in 2009, her love life was turbulent to say the least.
However, her first marriage was probably the worst. In 1971, Ivana married Alfred Winklmayr. He was her pal and fellow skier from Austria. Marrying her best friend came with a lot of conditions. Michael Kennedy, her lawyer, said that although Winklmayr put a ring on her finger, the marriage “was never consummated.”
According to the South China Morning Post, the couple never even shared a home. Many say the marriage was to get Ivana an Austrian passport without defecting from Czechoslovakia. However, there was much more awaiting her apart from the loveless marriage.
Ivana “married” Austrian Alfred Winklmayr just so she could get out of communist Czechoslovakia. Marriage was not consummated and was dissolved but mission accomplished. She moved to Canada then US then married Trump and became citizen 1988. pic.twitter.com/Fa8KjcgUv1
— Mary Cummins 💎 (@MaryCummins1) August 2, 2018
Ivana, who would later become a Trump, managed to find love with Jiří Staidl. The two met while studying at Charles University in Czechoslovakia. However, even though that romance ended when the playwright and songwriter died in a tragic car crash in 1973, the same year, her administrative marriage with her first husband also came to an end.
One would say that this much heartbreak was enough for Ivana. But it was far from the end. On February 16, 1990, she became a nationwide news story, just over a decade into her marriage with Donald Trump. Her face was plastered all over the news with The New York Post headline “The Best Sex I’ve Ever Had.”
Unfortunately, the headline wasn’t about Ivana Trump; it was referring to Donald Trump’s infamous affair with Marla Maples, whom he would soon marry. In her book, Raising Trump, she wrote, “[Maples] actively participated in humiliating me in the media and indirectly put my kids at risk for months. I went through hell, and then I was expected to be okay with her being around my children? We all have deep scars from that period of our lives, in part due to [Maples’] actions.”
Ivana Trump: “We got divorced because Donald was unfaithful.” pic.twitter.com/fnC5RI34Ze
— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 10, 2017
Ivana and Donald Trump’s divorce was another public affair, with her name being mentioned all over the news throughout the day. “I have pride and I have dignity and stuff like that, but so many women, around the world, they live with the men knowing that they are cheating and stuff like that. Everybody handles their situation their own way,” she said to Page Six in 2018.
Her divorce from Donald Trump wasn’t just about the affair and loss of trust. During the 1989 deposition case, Ivana alleged that the now POTUS even sexually assaulted her. However, later she toned down the claims. She told ABC News, “
As a woman, I felt violated, as the love and tenderness that he normally exhibited towards me were absent. I referred to this as a ‘r—,’ but I do not want my words to be interpreted in a literal or criminal sense.”
As if going through all these wasn’t enough, Ivana Trump’s next marriage only lasted about 20 months, leading to another tragedy.
