What is the timeline of Donald Trump's marriages and divorces?
Executive summary
Donald Trump has married three times: to Ivana Zelníčková (1977–divorced early 1990s), to Marla Maples (married December 1993 — separated 1997, divorce finalized 1999), and to Melania Knauss (married 2005 and still married as of the latest reporting) [1] [2] [3]. Reporting is consistent that his first marriage produced three children and ended amid publicity about an affair with Marla Maples; timelines for the Ivana divorce show filings around 1990 with finalization reported as 1992 in several profiles [4] [2] [5].
1. The Ivana era: long marriage, public collapse
Donald Trump married Ivana in 1977; they had three children — Donald Jr. , Ivanka and Eric — and the marriage dissolved amid tabloid coverage after revelations of an affair with Marla Maples. Ivana filed for divorce in March 1990 amid highly publicized revelations; several mainstream profiles place the final divorce in the early 1990s (often cited as 1992) while contemporaneous accounts emphasize the 1990 filing and the media spectacle around the split [4] [2] [5].
2. The Maples interlude: quick wedding, protracted legal end
Trump’s relationship with Marla Maples began publicly while his first marriage was unravelling. Maples gave birth to Tiffany in October 1993; Trump and Maples married two months later in December 1993. The pair separated in 1997 and their divorce was finalized in 1999, making the legal end of that marriage span several years after their separation [6] [2] [3].
3. Melania: the long-standing third marriage
Donald Trump began dating Melania Knauss (Melania Trump) while his divorce from Maples was still pending; the couple married in 2005 and later had one son, Barron. Reporting treated this marriage as enduring: profiles note that Trump has been married to Melania since 2005 and she served as First Lady during his presidencies [2] [3].
4. Points of agreement and small discrepancies in reporting
Major outlets and timelines largely agree on the sequence — Ivana, Maples, Melania — and key anchors: Ivana marriage beginning in 1977, Maples wedding December 1993, and Melania wedding 2005 [1] [6] [3]. The principal discrepancy in sources concerns the exact date the Ivana divorce was finalized: some profiles emphasize Ivana’s 1990 filing and breakup, while others list the formal divorce year as 1992 [4] [2] [5]. Sources consistently report Maples and Trump separated in 1997 and divorced in 1999 [2] [3] [7].
5. How the personal and public mixed in each episode
Reporting underscores that each marriage’s end was highly public and often tied to media narratives: Ivana’s divorce was driven by revelations of an affair; the Maples marriage followed that affair and itself unfolded in the tabloids; the Melania marriage began as Trump’s profile expanded into global politics and remained the most private of the three by comparison in available timelines [5] [6] [3].
6. What the sources do not settle or omit
Available sources do not mention precise court filing dates for the Ivana divorce beyond the commonly cited March 1990 filing, nor do they uniformly list an exact finalization day for that divorce; they vary between citing a 1990 filing and a 1992 finalization [4] [2] [5]. Sources do not provide exhaustive legal paperwork or the full negotiated terms of the prenups and settlements in these summaries [8] [1].
7. Why timelines matter and how to read them
Timelines in mainstream profiles converge on sequence and major years (1977 marriage to Ivana; 1993 Maples wedding; 1997 separation and 1999 Maples divorce; 2005 Melania wedding) and differ mainly on the exact legal endpoint of the Ivana marriage [2] [3] [1]. Readers should treat reported “divorce year” as potentially referring to either a filing, a separation or a final decree depending on the outlet; the sources cited here explicitly show that variation [4] [2].
If you want, I can convert these anchors into a concise, date-by-date timeline (year and event) with inline citations to each specific claim from the sources above.