What exact allegation did Ivana Trump make about being raped by Donald Trump and when did she first state it?

1. The core allegation: a 1989 incident described as “rape” in a divorce deposition

Reporting traces Ivana Trump’s strongest allegation to a statement she made in a sworn divorce deposition in the early 1990s, in which she said an episode from 1989 felt like rape — language that Harry Hurt III quoted in his 1993 book Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump ^{[1] [2]}. Multiple outlets repeat that wording: the deposition described an incident in which Ivana said her husband “raped her in a fit of rage” during their marriage ^{[5] [1]}.

2. What she later said: recasting and disclaimers

After the allegation became public via the 1993 book and later reporting, Ivana publicly softened or disavowed a literal criminal interpretation. News organizations report she told interviewers and wrote that she did not mean “rape in the criminal sense,” calling stories of a literal rape “totally without merit” and saying her earlier words were figurative or “lawyers’ talk” ^{[2] [4] [6]}. The timeline in mainstream outlets shows an initial deposition in the early 1990s, public reporting in 1993, and further clarifications in subsequent interviews ^{[4] [2]}.

3. How contemporary and later reporting framed the claim

AP, PBS, The Guardian and others characterize Ivana’s deposition remark as an accusation—but they also emphasize her later statements walking back a literal criminal claim ^{[3] [4] [7]}. Fact-checking and timeline pieces place the remark among many other allegations against Donald Trump, noting differences in seriousness and legal outcome between Ivana’s deposition and later litigated accusations such as E. Jean Carroll’s ^{[8] [9]}.

4. Discrepancies and source provenance: deposition vs. book reporting

Much of what the public learned came through Harry Hurt III’s 1993 book, which quoted from Ivana’s deposition; Snopes and other outlets summarize that the book obtained or cited a 1990 sworn deposition in which Ivana described feeling raped in 1989 ^[1]. Because the book excerpt and later press reports are the primary public record cited by contemporary coverage, journalists flag that the allegation’s public form is mediated through secondary reporting rather than a contemporaneous press release from Ivana ^{[1] [2]}.

5. Legal context and comparison to other allegations

Reporting distinguishes Ivana’s deposition remarks from later litigated allegations: E. Jean Carroll’s claim led to a civil jury finding of sexual abuse and defamation in 2023, while Ivana’s statement did not result in criminal charges and she later reframed her language ^{[9] [7]}. News organizations and fact-checkers note that spousal rape was illegal in New York by the time of the incident, but available sources emphasize that Ivana’s later disavowal changed how that original deposition remark was understood publicly ^{[2] [4]}.

6. Conflicting interpretations and media caution

Different outlets present competing emphases: some cite the deposition wording that used “rape” directly (often via Hurt’s book), while others foreground Ivana’s later clarification that she did not intend the term in a criminal sense ^{[1] [4]}. Newsrooms and fact-checkers caution readers about the difference between a sworn deposition excerpt as reported in a book and subsequent public recantations; major outlets therefore report both the original language and Ivana’s later disavowal ^{[3] [2]}.

7. What the available sources do not say

Available sources do not mention any criminal investigation, charge, or prosecution arising from Ivana’s deposition remark ^{[1] [4]}. They also do not provide a verbatim transcript of the original deposition in the public reporting cited here; instead, accounts rely on book excerpts and later interviews that summarize or reinterpret Ivana’s words ^{[1] [2]}.

Bottom line: The exact allegation reported in public sources is that Ivana described a 1989 episode in their marriage as having “raped” her in a 1990 divorce deposition quoted by Hurt’s 1993 book, but Ivana later publicly recast that language as figurative and denied she meant “rape in the criminal sense” ^{[1] [2] [4]}.