Ivana Trump, Donald Trump’s first wife, dies at 73, family says

Ivana Trump, the ex-wife of former President Donald Trump, has died, family members said Thursday. She was 73.

The 45th president confirmed Ivana Trump’s passing in a statement on Truth Social, the social media site he founded last year. Ivana and Donald Trump were married from 1977 until 1992.

“I am very saddened to inform all of those that loved her, of which there are many, that Ivana Trump has passed away at her home in New York City,” Donald Trump wrote.

“She was a wonderful, beautiful, and amazing woman, who led a great and inspirational life. Her pride and joy were her three children, Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric. She was so proud of them, as we were all so proud of her. Rest In Peace, Ivana!”

In a statement obtained by The Associated Press, the Trump family remembered Ivana Trump as “an incredible woman -- a force in business, a world-class athlete, a radiant beauty, and a caring mother and friend.”

“Ivana Trump was a survivor. She fled from communism and embraced this country. She taught her children about grit and toughness, compassion and determination,” the family said, according to the AP. “She will be dearly missed by her mother, her three children and ten grandchildren.”

Family members did not say how Ivana Trump died. Unidentified police sources told the New York Post that authorities found Ivana Trump dead of a suspected cardiac arrest at her home in Manhattan on Thursday afternoon. Officials told WABC that Ivana Trump was found at the bottom of a set of stairs, but that the death did not appear to be suspicious. Authorities are investigating to determine the cause and manner of her death.

Donald and Ivana Trump were a well-known New York City power couple in the 1980s until their highly publicized and contentious divorce. In recent years, Ivana Trump had been on good terms with her former husband, the AP reported.

During the couple’s marriage, Ivana Trump played a key role in helping to build her husband’s real-estate empire, according to The New York Times. She had a hand in several of Donald Trump’s early signature projects, including the development of Trump Tower in Manhattan, the newspaper reported. She also served as vice president for interior design for his company, the Trump Organization, according to the Times.

Born as Ivana Zelnickova on Feb. 20, 1949, in the former Czechoslovakia, Ivana Trump immigrated to Canada before modeling brought her to New York City in the 1970s, Forbes reported. She met Donald Trump in 1976, according to business magazine.

Donald Trump was her second husband, the AP reported, and she went on to marry two other times before her death. From 1995 to 1997, Ivana Trump was married to Italian businessman Riccardo Mazzucchelli, the Post reported. She married Italian actor Rossano Rubicondi in a lavish ceremony at Mar-a-Lago in 2008, though the couple divorced a short while later, according to US Weekly.

Ivana Trump is survived by her mother, her three children and 10 grandchildren, family members said.

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