Keep Factually independent
Whether you agree or disagree with our analysis, these conversations matter for democracy. We don't take money from political groups - even a $5 donation helps us keep it that way.
What role did Ivana and Marla Maples play in Donald Trump's relationships with Melania?
Executive summary
Ivana Trump’s public comments and memoir portray Marla Maples as the woman who precipitated Ivana’s split from Donald Trump and show Ivana favored Melania; reporting and profiles confirm Trump’s affair with Maples began while he was married to Ivana and that Maples later married Trump and had daughter Tiffany [1] [2] [3]. Contemporary accounts and later profiles also document that Melania has at times appeared cordial with Trump’s exes — including sharing family events — while Ivana maintained a specific personal dislike for Maples but not for Melania [4] [5] [6].
1. How the affair with Marla Maples intersected with Ivana’s marriage
Reporting establishes that Donald Trump’s relationship with Marla Maples began while he was still married to Ivana; that affair is repeatedly identified as a key factor in Ivana and Donald’s divorce in 1990–1992, and Maples and Trump later married and had a child, Tiffany [1] [2]. Multiple retrospective timelines and biographies note an altercation on a 1989 Aspen ski trip that Ivana later recounted in her memoir as the moment she knew the marriage was over, underscoring Maples’s role in how Ivana remembers the breakdown of that marriage [3] [7].
2. Ivana’s public stance: favoring Melania, blaming Maples
Ivana publicly differentiated between Melania and Maples in interviews and memoir passages, telling interviewers that “one is a nobody, the other is First Lady,” and refusing to discuss Maples at length while expressing no comparable hostility toward Melania [8] [6] [9]. Multiple outlets that republished the CBS segment and other interviews report Ivana described Maples in dismissive terms (e.g., “showgirl”) and placed blame on her for flirting with Donald — a framing that centers Maples’s behavior rather than examining Trump’s responsibility, according to those reports [8] [9] [10].
3. Marla Maples’s role in the timeline and aftermath
Biographical records and mainstream profiles confirm the sequence: Trump met Maples in the mid-1980s, their relationship became public in the late ’80s, Ivana and Donald divorced, Maples gave birth to Tiffany in 1993, and Maples and Trump married that same year before separating later in the decade [1] [2]. Profiles also note that, despite a reportedly acrimonious divorce, some ex-spouses have spoken publicly in softer terms about Trump later on, suggesting personal reconciliation or public civility that complicates simple adversarial narratives [3] [2].
4. Melania’s interactions with Trump’s exes — public cordiality, not an absence of history
Coverage documents occasions when Melania has appeared with or near Trump’s exes at family events (for example, Easter at Mar-a-Lago where Marla and Tiffany were present alongside Melania), and pieces exploring the “complicated” dynamic note that Ivana didn’t publicly object to Melania even as she disliked Maples — indicating Melania’s status and later role as First Lady shaped how she was treated by Ivana and portrayed in media [5] [4]. These accounts do not claim there were no tensions earlier; rather, they record that public interactions at times showed civility [4].
5. Differences in perspectives across sources and what’s not fully settled
Contemporary reporting and later magazine pieces largely align on the sequence of relationships and Ivana’s expressed opinions; however, sources differ in tone and emphasis. Some outlets foreground Ivana’s sharp remarks about Maples [8] [6], while others emphasize later cordial moments among the women or note appearances together, which portrays a more complex social reality [4] [5]. Available sources do not mention private conversations or the full range of interpersonal dynamics behind closed doors, so conclusions about motives, forgiveness, or private arrangements cannot be definitively drawn from the current reporting (not found in current reporting).
6. What to watch if you want more clarity
Primary interviews (full CBS segments or memoir excerpts) and contemporaneous records from the late 1980s–1990s (court filings, contemporaneous news stories) would add precision about dates, statements, and legal contexts; some of the summarizing articles cite Ivana’s memoir and a resurfaced CBS interview as the basis for quotes — consulting those originals would be the best way to confirm wording and context [3] [8]. Until such primary texts are reviewed, the available coverage supports the central factual outline: Maples’s affair with Trump overlapped his marriage to Ivana, Ivana has publicly blamed Maples, and Ivana expressed preference for Melania in later remarks [1] [2] [8].