It was only a matter of time. Donald Trump Jr.‘s wife, Vanessa Trump, filing for divorce may have come as a surprise to some, but the spouses of 12 years had been dealing with marital issues for a while, a source tells Us Weekly exclusively.
“His relationship with Vanessa started getting rocky two years ago, when his dad started to campaign,” the insider tells Us of President Donald Trump’s 40-year-old son. “Vanessa is very close to her family and very private and does not like all this attention on her family. They’ve been unhappy for a while.”
Page Six was first to report that she filed the papers on Thursday, March 15, in New York City.
Donald Jr. and Vanessa, also 40, met at a fashion show in the Big Apple in 2003. “Donald Trump comes up to me with his son: ‘Hi, I’m Donald Trump. I wanted to introduce you to my son Donald Trump Jr.,” she recalled of their first encounter in a 2006 interview with The New York Times.
During an intermission in the show, the father-son duo walked up to the Marymount Manhattan College alum once more. “Donald comes back up to me again. ‘I don’t think you’ve met my son Donald Trump Jr.,” she told the newspaper. “Yeah, we just met, five minutes ago.”
Six weeks later, the real estate scion bumped into Vanessa again at a birthday party, where they finally hit it off. They began dating and eventually tied the knot at his father’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, in November 2005. The service was officiated by Donald Sr.’s sister Judge Maryanne Trump Barry.
Donald Jr. and Vanessa are the parents of five children: Kai, 10, Donald III, 9, Tristan, 6, Spencer, 5, and Chloe, 3.
Prior to the separation, the pair made headlines after Vanessa was hospitalized as a precaution after opening a suspicious letter that was mailed to their apartment in NYC on February 12. A spokesperson for the NYPD told the Associated Press at the time that Vanessa was coughing and complained of nausea after being exposed to an unidentified substance inside the envelope.
In response to the health scare, Donald Jr. tweeted, “Thankful that Vanessa & my children are safe and unharmed after the incredibly scary situation that occurred this morning. Truly disgusting that certain individuals choose to express their opposing views with such disturbing behavior.”
