Ivana Trump Believed She Was 'Too Successful To Be Mrs. Trump': "One Of Us Had To Go"

Ivana Trump's book, Raising Trump, details her 13-year marriage to the man who is now running for the 2024 presidential elections and her experience raising their three children. As reported by Vanity Fair in 2017, some of Trump's acquaintances claimed that Ivana, not Donald, was the mastermind behind the Trump Organisation and that she had a significant part in its management. She stated in her book as per the outlet, "I was too successful to be Mrs. Trump. In our marriage, there couldn’t be two stars. So one of us had to go."

Ivana Trump, who was married to the real estate billionaire from 1977 until 1992, explained in her book Raising Trump that she realized their marriage was ended after a particularly difficult day in December 1989. She mentioned in her memoir, "This young blonde woman approached me out of the blue and said ‘I’m Marla and I love your husband. Do you?’ I said ‘Get lost. I love my husband.’ It was unladylike but I was in shock." In 1990, the New York Post ran the now-famous "Best Sex I've Ever Had" headline about Trump's romance with Marla Maples. After divorcing his first wife, Trump married Maples in 1993. In the book, Ivana speaks glowingly about her marriage to Trump and her important position in the Trump Organisation. But then she starts talking about how much she and Trump's three kids—Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric—suffered because of his romance with Maples. Donald Jr. and his father had no contact for an entire year following their divorce.

Following their divorce in 1992, Ivana Trump famously said to Donald, "There can be only one chef in the kitchen." As reported by ABC News, she mentioned, "I would go and call Donald, I said, 'Ivanka is going to Chapin, or she's going to go to the Georgetown University. Eric is going to go to Hill School,' and he said, 'OK,' I was in charge. I just told him where they were going to go, and he said, 'OK.' He trusted my judgment because I know the personality of my kids." She further added in her memoir, "He was a loving father, don't get me wrong, and he was a good provider, but he was not the father who would take a stroll and go to the Central Park or go play to baseball with them or something. It was only until they were about 18 years old [that] he could communicate with them because he could start to talk business with them. Before, he really didn't know what conversation to strike with the little kids."

While answering a question about whether or not she thought Donald Trump was sexist, she brought up her time as a wife to the real estate billionaire. She mentioned, "Donald gave me all the opportunity to go and prove myself. I built the Commander Hotel. I built the Trump Tower. Then Donald [sent] me to Atlantic City, and I was flying at 8 in the morning after breakfast with the kids to Atlantic City on the helicopter. I think that Donald supports the woman. He loves the woman. Always did. He definitely respected women."