What were Ivana Trump's exact words describing the alleged rape and in which interview or book did she first say them?
Executive summary
Ivana Trump used the word “rape” in a sworn divorce deposition describing a 1989 marital incident, then publicly softened that language in a 1993 statement saying she “referred to this as a ‘rape,’ but I do not want my words to be interpreted in a literal or criminal sense” — a text that was published alongside Harry Hurt III’s 1993 biography Lost Tycoon and cited in subsequent reporting [1] [2]. Reporting and later interviews show the original line came from her divorce deposition (circa 1990/1991) and was first made public in Hurt’s 1993 book and press coverage of that book [3] [4].
1. What Ivana actually wrote and said — the quoted language
Ivana’s most commonly cited formulation is: “On one occasion during 1989, Mr. Trump and I had marital relations in which he behaved very differently toward me than he had during our marriage. As a woman, I felt violated, as the love and tenderness, which he normally exhibited towards me, was absent. I referred to this as a ‘rape,’ but I do not want my words to be interpreted in a literal or criminal sense.” That phrasing appears in reporting that reproduced a statement published ahead of Harry Hurt III’s 1993 biography Lost Tycoon and in news accounts summarizing her deposition and the book’s text [1] [2].
2. Where those words first appeared in public reporting
The earliest public airing of Ivana’s deposition language came when Harry Hurt III published Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump in 1993; Hurt said he had obtained parts of her sworn divorce deposition and printed related excerpts and a “notice” containing Ivana’s own clarifying statement on the allegation [3] [4]. Contemporary coverage and later retrospectives cite the book as the public source for the deposition material [3] [4].
3. The original source: a sealed divorce deposition
Multiple outlets and fact-checks trace the wording back to a sworn deposition Ivana gave during the Trump divorce proceedings around 1990–1991; that deposition was sealed in court records but excerpts were reproduced in Hurt’s book and in news coverage [5] [6]. Journalists and later authors who handled the material reported that Hurt relied on that deposition when recounting the incident [3] [4].
4. Ivana’s subsequent softening and public statements
Shortly after the 1993 book’s publication and when reporters sought comment in later years, Ivana issued a clarifying statement — reproduced on the book’s notice and cited by outlets — saying she did not intend “rape” in a literal criminal sense and that she had “felt violated” [1] [7]. She later publicly described the earlier comments as “the lawyers’ talk” and denied wanting the phrase interpreted as a criminal allegation [8] [4].
5. How later coverage treated the line and disputes over meaning
News organizations, long-form profiles and fact-checkers note two competing threads: the deposition language used the word “rape” to describe an episode; Ivana’s later, formally published statement sought to limit that term to a non‑literal or emotional sense [1] [7]. Some reporters and books present the deposition account as a description of a violent marital assault, while Ivana’s public clarifications and later interviews emphasized she did not intend a criminal accusation — a divergence that has produced sustained debate in press accounts [3] [4].
6. What is not in the available sources
Available sources do not provide the unredacted, original deposition text beyond the quoted passages reproduced in Hurt’s book and cited articles; court files were reported as sealed and not publicly available in full [5] [6]. Available reporting does not include contemporaneous courtroom audio or a full transcript released to the public to independently verify every descriptive detail beyond what journalists quoted from the book and the notice [5].
7. Why this matters now — context and agendas
The line has been used by different actors for different purposes: Hurt’s biography published deposition material that cast the marriage in alarming terms [3]; Ivana’s later clarifications and a Trump aide’s 2015 defense (“you can’t rape your spouse”) were used to rebut renewed attention when the story resurfaced in 2015 and again in cultural depictions such as the 2024 film controversy [4] [8] [2]. Readers should note the competing agendas: the author publishing sealed deposition excerpts, Ivana’s own later damage‑control statement, and defenders of Donald Trump who emphasized the non‑criminal framing [3] [4].
Sources cited above: reporting and book excerpts reproduced in Harry Hurt III’s Lost Tycoon and contemporary news coverage [1] [3] [4] [2] [5].