Donald Trump and Ivana Trump went through a messy divorce which turned into an entertaining tabloid feed in the 90s. As a result of his separation and extramarital affair with model Marla Maples, the real estate magnet started to receive a lot of bad press. According to The Washington Post , he took issue with Liz Smith, a gossip journalist for the Daily News, for publicly disparaging him in her columns. Trump attacked Smith in an irate fax, “Dear Liz: Why don’t you stop saying that Ivana is fighting to protect herself and ‘her’ children? (1) The children are ‘our’ children and no one loves them more than I do; (2) The children are totally protected by me and do not need Ivana’s protection exclusively,” he slammed.
He added, “You have carried the episode too far and should be ashamed of yourself as a professional.” The New York Times reported that Smith was the first journalist who broke the story of Donald-Ivana’s divorce. However, following the backlash from Trump she regretted her decision of publically dragging the story. ”I can’t say I enjoyed that,” she said, referring to the front-page photograph. ”The average reporter doesn’t want to be part of the story and it doesn’t work out well when he or she is. But I can’t get out of it.” Smith went on to seek an apology for the messy situation while appearing on Live at Five on WNBC-TV. ”I am sorry for that,” she said.
JUST IN: Liz Smith, the former New York Post gossip columnist known for making and breaking careers, is dead at 94 https://t.co/QJZ4YYOuG2 pic.twitter.com/j9RDSoUU4j
— New York Post (@nypost) November 12, 2017
The famed columnist also acknowledged that she never intended to blow up the personal dimensions between Trump and his ex-wife. Smith also admitted that she wanted to drop the story but was forced to carry on.” It’s like grasping at a nettle,” she said. ”I want to let this go. But I have my bosses, two sets, editors at the newspaper, and producers at the television station. They want this to go on.” She also claimed that she never anticipated Trump’s divorce snowballing into a ‘media frenzy’ and sensational front-page photo spreads. ”I can’t say I enjoyed that,” she said.
Meanwhile, Ivana hired a private detective named Clyde Wilson to gather evidence against her ex-husband . Buffalo News reported that the purpose of Wilson’s agency was to document Ivana’s contributions to the Trump corporation and to obtain proof of any potential adultery on Donald’s part.
The thing I remember most – is that after Donald divorced her – he asked her to decorate the Plaza Hotel ballroom as a favor to him. She put her heart & soul into it. He then booked it’s first event. The reception of his wedding to Marla Maples. The woman left Ivana for. https://t.co/nMyDXLcFlv
— MimZWay (@MimZWay) July 14, 2022
As per The Daily Beast , in her book Raising Trump , Ivana later detailed the future president’s infidelity and her well-publicized divorce. According to her memoir, she found out her marriage was finished in 1989 when Marla Maples, the “other woman” who would later become Trump’s second wife, contacted her.
Ivana Trump: “We got divorced because Donald was unfaithful.” pic.twitter.com/fnC5RI34Ze
— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 10, 2017
“This young blonde woman approached me out of the blue and said ‘I’m Marla and I love your husband. Do you?’” she recounted. “I said ‘Get lost. I love my husband.’ It was unladylike but I was in shock,” she wrote. Trump’s affair with Maples also emotionally hurt the couple’s three kids, according to the book, with Donald Jr. refusing to speak to his father for a year following their divorce.