The lady speaks at last! Ivana Trump gave an incredibly rare, candid interview to the New York Post about her ex-husband Donald Trump‘s current bid for the presidency, and opened up about everything from his affair with Marla Maples to their current relationship.
“Probably five years before our divorce, Reagan or somebody brought him a letter and said, ‘You should run for president,’” Ivana, 67, mom of Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric, told the Post in a story published Sunday, April 3. “So, he was thinking about it. But then … there was the divorce, there was the scandal, and American women loved me and hated him.”
Ivana, of course, was referring to her ex-husband’s headline-making affair with Maples that resulted in their 1992 divorce after 15 years of marriage. “So there was no way that he would go into [politics] at that point,” she mused to the paper. “But he was always tooling around with the idea.”
After the two divvied up their assets in their divorce, they were able to maintain an amicable relationship, coparenting their three kids. In fact, Ivana told the Post that she advises her husband at times. “I suggest a few things,” the former model said. “We speak before and after the appearances and he asks me what I thought.” Ivana tells her husband to “be more calm,” though that’s not in his nature.
“Donald cannot be calm,” she continued. “He’s very outspoken. He just says it as it is … He’s no politician. He’s a businessman. He knows how to talk. He can give an hour speech without notes.” Ivana added that if Donald was elected: “He’d make a decision! Obama cannot make a decision if his life depends on it. It’s ridiculous.”
The Czechoslovakian-born former model, who claimed she isn’t political, also reacted to Donald’s controversial remarks about immigration. “I’m an immigrant,” Ivana noted to the paper. “I have nothing against Mexicans, but if they [come] here — like this 19-year-old, she’s pregnant, she crossed over a wall that’s this high. She gives the birth in American hospital, which is for free. The child becomes American automatically. She brings the whole family, she doesn’t pay the taxes, she doesn’t have a job, she gets the housing, she gets the food stamps. Who’s paying? You and me … He gave me the chance. I came [to America] and I was a poor person. I had a sense of style so he put me in charge of interior design of the Grand Hyatt Hotel. I was seven months pregnant and going up the steps, making sure everything was on the schedule.”
As for Donald’s infidelity with Maples? “She asked to apologize to me in the Daily Mail in London. They asked if I accepted the apology and I said no,” Ivana replied. “Why should I? She broke my marriage!” Maples and Trump were married from 1993 to 1999. She is currently competing on ABC’s Dancing With the Stars and shares a 22-year-old daughter, Tiffany, with her ex.
Ivana also reacted to Melania Trump, who Donald wed in 2005, potentially becoming First Lady. “She’s going to adapt just fine,” she said. “She never did anything wrong to me. I wish them all the best.”
Ivana herself moved on and married Riccardo Mazzucchelli in 1995, but their marriage ended two years later. She married Rossano Rubicondi in 2008, but the two separated shortly after. She now has three boyfriends and has zero plans to get married. “If you are a married woman, you usually follow what the man wants to do. I can do whatever what I want,” she told the Post. “I’m not getting married again. But I like companions. The most important for me is honesty, good humor — not necessarily a millionaire. I don’t need [money]. I prefer to be a baby sitter than a nursemaid. I don’t want to worry about bad knees and bad back.”
Watch the video above for more on Melania’s exclusive interview with Us.
