Marla maples actually warned a friend to never leave her 12 year old daughter with Trump
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Executive summary
A widely circulated anecdote claims Marla Maples warned a friend to “never leave her 12‑year‑old daughter with” Donald Trump; reporting shows a version of that story was published as part of The New York Times’ Trump–Epstein investigation but the details in the contemporary press accounts describe a 14‑year‑old model and Maples has denied making the specific warning [1] [2] [3]. Multiple outlets have repeated the mother’s allegation while also noting Maples’ explicit denial, and available public reporting does not independently corroborate the private 1990s conversation [4] [5] [6].
1. The claim and how it has been reported
The central allegation stems from a former model’s mother, Sandra Coleman, who told reporters she and her daughter were at a late‑1994 party associated with Jeffrey Epstein and Mar‑a‑Lago, and that during the evening Marla Maples pulled Coleman aside and warned, “Whatever you do, do not let her around any of these men, and especially my husband,” according to summaries of The New York Times’ reporting that have been republished by outlets including AOL, OK! Magazine and The Daily Beast [2] [3] [4].
2. What the principal original reporting says (source and context)
The episode is presented in media coverage as one of several anecdotes recounted to The New York Times in its broader investigation of Trump’s ties to Epstein; NewsBreak and other outlets summarized the Times’ piece as reporting Coleman’s memory of waiters offering champagne to underage‑appearing girls and Maples’ alleged bathroom warning to the mother [1]. Those summaries identify the encounter as a private conversation three decades ago at a social event and place it within a chain of testimony from former models, staffers and associates interviewed for the Times project [1] [2].
3. Marla Maples’ response
Marla Maples has publicly denied making the precise statement attributed to her, telling outlets that she “would always protect young women in any way I could,” but that she was “sure I didn’t specifically say that about my daughter’s father,” language quoted by Newsweek and repeated across subsequent reporting [5] [3]. Coverage of the denial is consistent: major follow‑ups that repeat the Coleman anecdote also quote Maples’ rejection of the specific wording of the claim [4] [2].
4. What is verifiable and what remains uncertain
Contemporary reporting rests on a decades‑old private recollection reported to The New York Times and then summarized by other outlets; there is no public contemporaneous recording or third‑party corroboration in the materials cited here that definitively proves Maples uttered the quoted line, nor is there evidence in the provided snippets that the alleged comment involved a “12‑year‑old” specifically—most accounts say the girl was 14 [2] [1]. The available sources therefore establish that the allegation exists, that it was included in the Times’ examination of the Epstein‑Trump milieu, and that Maples has denied the claim; they do not provide independent documentary proof of the private exchange [1] [5].
5. Reading the disagreement and its implications
The split between the mother’s vivid recollection (as reported by multiple outlets relaying the Times’ reporting) and Maples’ categorical denial illustrates the limits of reconstructing private social interactions from decades ago: memory, motive and the absence of contemporaneous documentation complicate verification, and different outlets have chosen to emphasize either the allegation or the denial [3] [4] [2]. For readers seeking a definitive answer, the reporting supplied here supports only that the allegation was made to journalists and published in summaries of The New York Times’ investigation, and that Maples has publicly denied making that warning—no supplied source independently confirms the exact words or the age‑12 framing the question raises [1] [5].