The Trump family was on top of the world when patriarch Donald Trump was elected president of the United States in 2016. But the real estate mogul’s political ascent only added more problems to his son Donald Trump Jr.’s already turbulent marriage to Vanessa Trump.
“Their social life completely evaporated once Trump took office,” a source close to Vanessa tells Us Weekly exclusively. “They’ve become recluses.”
On top of that, Trump Jr., 40, has become “totally consumed by this presidency, his dad and by the Russia scandal,” the insider says. “It has changed who he is and impacted his life with Vanessa.”
Prior to the 71-year-old’s presidency, the businessman and the former model, also 40, had “a very active and normal social life” with a liberal circle of friends in New York City,” the source tells Us. “They were a humble, loving, great couple and very down-to-earth.”
Vanessa would even bring her husband lunch at his office, the source adds. Weekends saw them hosting dinner parties at their Upper West Side home or enjoying outdoor time in upstate New York.
But everything changed for the philanthropist after the election. “She just has her family,” the insider tells Us. “Don Jr. has been absent from this marriage.”
So it didn’t come as a huge surprise to those closest to Vanessa when she filed for an uncontested divorce from Trump Jr. on Thursday, March 15, after 12 years of marriage. “It takes a lot to walk away from your marriage to the president’s son,” another source previously told Us exclusively. “Her friends and family are proud of her.”
Days after the divorce news broke, multiple sources confirmed to Us that the Trump Organization executive cheated on his wife with Aubrey O’Day after they met on the season 5 set of The Celebrity Apprentice in 2011. The affair continued until March 2012 when Vanessa found emails between Trump Jr. and the former Danity Kane singer, 34.
The now-estranged couple are the parents of Kai, 10, Donald III, 9, Tristan, 6, Spencer, 5, and Chloe, 3. They said in a post-split statement that their “five beautiful children … remain our top priority.”
For more on Trump Jr. and O’Day’s secret romance, pick up the new issue of Us Weekly, on stands now.
