Did Ivana Trump ever testify in court or in depositions about sexual assault by her husband?
Executive summary
Ivana Trump did give sworn deposition testimony during her 1990 divorce from Donald Trump in which, according to contemporaneous reporting and later books, she described a violent incident she at times characterized as rape; that deposition was not public at the time but excerpts were made known later through Harry Hurt III’s 1993 book and subsequent reporting [1] [2] [3]. Ivana later softened or walked back the wording publicly and disputed media framings, while Donald Trump denied the allegation [4] [2] [1].
1. The core record: a divorce deposition that described a violent assault
Multiple reputable accounts report that Ivana Trump provided sworn testimony in a deposition during the couple’s divorce proceedings around 1989–1990 in which she described a violent incident involving Donald Trump that Harry Hurt III’s book characterizes as a “violent assault” and reports she used the word “rape” in some versions of the testimony [1] [2] [4]. Reporting and later timelines assembled by outlets including PBS, The Guardian and Business Insider summarize that the allegation originates in that sealed divorce deposition and in Hurt’s recounting of it [5] [6] [4].
2. How the allegation entered the public record years later
The substance of Ivana’s deposition was not widely public at the time of the divorce but surfaced in the early 1990s when Hurt published Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump, which reproduced or paraphrased parts of the sealed testimony; media outlets and later investigative pieces re-published those excerpts or described them, and a wave of reporting in 2015 and beyond re-surfaced the claim for a new audience [1] [2] [5] [3]. Fact-checkers and news outlets note Hurt said he had a copy of the sworn deposition and that the allegation was part of the book’s source material [3] [2].
3. Ivana’s public statements and “walking back” the allegation
After the passages became public, Ivana publicly and privately moved away from the most extreme wording attributed to her deposition: she later said the story was “totally without merit” in a 2015 campaign-era statement and at times described herself as not having accused Donald Trump of rape “in a literal or criminal sense,” instead saying she felt “violated” on the occasion in question [1] [4] [2]. Coverage by outlets including The Independent and Business Insider documents that Ivana made later statements portraying the marriage and post-divorce relations as complex and at times reconciliatory, including public endorsements of Donald Trump years later [7] [8].
4. Trump’s denials and partisan framing
Donald Trump has consistently denied the allegation, calling the account false and his representatives have disputed both the scalp-reduction surgery cited in the fuller narrative and the assault itself; campaign lawyers and spokespeople characterized media retellings as inaccurate or motivated, and his defenders stress Ivana’s later denials as exculpatory [3] [1] [2]. Reporting on the subject also notes that different outlets and books have framed the deposition in ways that reflect editorial choices and partisan context, so readers encounter variations in wording and emphasis across sources [6] [5].
5. Legal status, sealed records and what cannot be confirmed publicly
The deposition originated in private divorce litigation and, according to multiple sources, was sealed at the time and later quoted or summarized by Hurt and mainstream reporting; journalists and legal observers note that the original court file remains subject to access limits unless unsealed by court order, meaning independent confirmation of every word in the deposition is constrained by the availability of primary court records [1] [3] [8]. Coverage from law firms and news outlets explains that sealed divorce records and disputes over unsealing have left some factual gaps in the public record that researchers cannot close without court action [8].
6. Bottom line: what can be stated with confidence
It is accurate to say Ivana Trump gave sworn deposition testimony during the couple’s divorce in which she described being violently assaulted by Donald Trump and that portions of that deposition were later reported and characterized by Harry Hurt III and subsequent media as including the word “rape”; it is also accurate that Ivana later publicly softened or disputed those descriptions and that Donald Trump denied the allegation, and that the original sealed records remain partially inaccessible to independent scrutiny [1] [2] [4] [3] [8]. Where sources diverge is in how the deposition is paraphrased, how Ivana’s later statements are interpreted, and what legal weight the sealed record should carry in public debate; the available reporting supports the core facts summarized here while recognizing limits on direct access to the original court documents [5] [6].