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Did Ivana Trump ever file a police report or lawsuit alleging rape against Donald Trump?
Executive summary
Ivana Trump described an incident in a 1991 divorce deposition in which she used the word “rape” to characterize what happened between her and Donald Trump in 1989, but in later public statements she recanted a literal criminal accusation and said she meant she felt “violated” emotionally; reporting and fact-checks show no public record in the provided sources of Ivana filing a police report alleging rape (AP fact-check; PBS; The Guardian) [1] [2] [3].
1. The origin: a divorce deposition that used the word “rape”
Reporting and later books say Ivana used the term “rape” in a sworn deposition during the couple’s divorce proceedings, describing a 1989 incident, and that passage later became public in the 1993 book Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump; news timelines and summaries repeat that she characterized an incident in those divorce records as “rape” [4] [3] [5].
2. Ivana’s later clarification: “not meant in a literal or criminal sense”
Multiple outlets record that Ivana walked back the literal criminal interpretation. In interviews and statements after the deposition became public, Ivana said she did not mean “rape” in a literal or criminal sense and described the sensation more as feeling “violated” emotionally; outlets including The Independent and AP note she softened or recanted the claim in subsequent remarks [6] [1].
3. Police report or criminal complaint: available sources do not mention one
The available reporting and fact-checking in these sources detail the deposition, the book publication, and Ivana’s public retractions but do not report that Ivana filed a police report or pursued criminal charges against Donald Trump over that incident; AP’s fact check explicitly notes the deposition allegation and her later clarification but does not document any police report [1]. Therefore, available sources do not mention a police report from Ivana.
4. Civil suits: did Ivana sue Donald over rape?
Records in the provided set show Ivana sued Donald in the early 1990s over divorce-and-settlement-related matters (for example, seeking money or enforcing divorce terms), and later litigation about property and contractual matters is documented, but the sources describe those as civil divorce/financial suits rather than a criminal rape charge brought by Ivana [7] [8]. The reporting frames the “rape” language as arising in divorce deposition text rather than as a separate civil claim alleging rape.
5. How later coverage and cultural depictions amplified the allegation
News timelines and later journalism (The Guardian, PBS, TIME and others) list Ivana’s deposition statement among the many allegations people discuss when recounting accusations against Donald Trump; cultural works (films, books) and later political coverage sometimes dramatize or repeat the deposition language — which critics and defenders alike have used for different purposes — but the underlying documentary trail in these sources is the deposition and Ivana’s own clarifying statements [3] [5] [9].
6. Disagreements and limitations in the record
Some secondary sources and books cite friends’ recollections or anonymous accounts that Ivana “confided” to others that she had been raped; others emphasize her recantation and the legal constraints and settlements surrounding the divorce that limited public discussion [4] [5]. Fact checks and mainstream outlets prioritize the primary record: a deposition that used charged language and Ivana’s later public clarification that she did not intend a literal criminal accusation [1]. Because private divorce files and some contemporaneous documents remain sealed or were summarized in later books, reporting can rely on excerpts and secondary accounts; this creates space for divergent portrayals [4] [8].
7. Bottom line for your question
Based on the provided sources: Ivana used the term “rape” in a divorce deposition and later publicly said she did not mean the word in a criminal sense and felt “violated”; the sources do not report that Ivana filed a police report or brought a criminal rape charge against Donald Trump — they document deposition language and her subsequent softening of the claim and civil divorce litigation instead [1] [2] [7].
If you want, I can pull the exact quoted passages from the cited pieces (for example the AP fact check or The Guardian timeline) so you can see the precise language attributed to Ivana and the reporters’ sourcing.