Trump, Ivana

(1949-)
Ivana, Inc.

Overview

Ivana Trump, known commonly as Ivana, made a splash across tabloid headlines in 1977 when she married real estate billionaire Donald Trump, to whom Ivana referred to as "The Donald." The couple stayed in the eye of the media, first for their extravagant lifestyle and then for their messy divorce. After the divorce in 1991, Ivana became an independent businesswoman, worth millions in her own right.

Personal Life

Ivana Trump was born Ivan Zelnicek on February 20, 1949 in Zlin, Czechoslovakia to Milos, an engineer, and Maria (Francova), a telephone operator. She was not a particularly healthy child and spent several months in an incubator as an infant. Her father thought that sports might help improve her health and so as a young child, growing up in Gottwaldov, Czechoslovakia, a mid–sized industrial town south of Prague, Ivana began swimming and skiing. She won her first ski race at the age of six. She was an equally good swimmer, but when time constraints demanded she limit herself to one sport, she chose skiing. Deciding she needed more structure and discipline to develop her athletic talents, her father placed her in a strict Communist–run school for child athletes when she was 12 years old. At the age of 15, Ivana began traveling around Europe competing as a member of the Czechoslovakian junior national team. At the age of 18, she enrolled in Charles University in Prague to study physical education; she went on to earn a master's degree. During her college years in Prague she skied on both the university ski team and the national team. While a student, Ivana also began her modeling career. In 1971 she was earning $38 a day for photo shoots, a considerable rate at the time in Prague, and she appeared on the cover of the fashion magazine Moda. In 1970 she appeared in her first film, a Czech production, Pantau.

Ivana began a relationship with Czech skier Jiri Syrovatka and lived with him for a time. Syrovatka made arrangements for Ivana to marry Alfred Winklmayr, an Austrian skier, so that she could obtain an Austrian passport and leave Communist Czechoslovakia, a common method of emigrating from the country. The two married in 1972 and divorced within the same year. During 1972 Ivana fell in love with Jiri Staidl, a rich playboy in the center of Prague's social scene. However, her relationship with Staidl ended abruptly when he was killed in an auto accident in October 1973. Years later in the midst of her divorce from Trump, Ivana remembered the tragedy, telling Ladies' Home Journal, "Before this, I had one tragedy in my life. I had a boyfriend in Czechoslovakia who died in a car crash. I was in love with him. It was a disaster; that's why I went to Canada. I needed to get away and forget...if you ever forget. It took me about five years to be able to even talk about it."

Staidl's death, along with the fact that she had failed to make the Olympic ski team, prompted Ivana to immigrate to Montreal, Canada where she was reunited with her former boyfriend Syrovatka, who owned a ski boutique and sporting goods store. Although her career as a skier had ended, Ivana maintained a life–long love for the sport and continued to ski recreationally. Skiing had been a big part of her life and she felt it had taught her a good lesson in life. Ivana explained to People Weekly what she learned from skiing: "When you are going down the mountain at 80 miles an hour, you cannot count on Mama or Papa. You have to count only on Ivana."

For the next several years Ivana and Syrovatka worked as ski instructors to supplement their incomes. Ivana began earnestly pursuing her career as a model and regularly appeared on the runways throughout Canada for the Andrey Morris Agency. Ivana's life changed forever in 1976 when she met Donald Trump while on a photo shoot in New York City, sent to promote the upcoming Olympics hosted by Montreal. During her stay, Ivana found herself sitting at a trendy restaurant, compliments of Trump, whose real estate empire is valued between $1.7 billion and $4 billion. The two hit it off instantly, and nine months later in 1977 they were married; Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, famous for his message of the power of positive thinking, performed the ceremony.

The following year, Ivana gave birth to the couple's first child, Donald, Jr. By 1982 the Trumps had added two more children to their family, Ivanka and Eric. The marriage gained the ongoing attention of the press because of the Trumps' indulgent lifestyle, highly touted during the 1980s. For example, after Trump built the famed Trump Tower in New York City, the Trump family occupied the top three floors. In 1984 they purchased a Greenwich, Connecticut mansion for $3.7 million. The following year they spent $10 million on the Mar–a–Lago estate in Palm Beach, built by cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post in 1927. The mansion consists of 110 rooms with enough plates to serve thirty people for sixty consecutive dinners without reusing a single dish. Among Trump's other possessions, he owned three Atlantic casinos, the famed New York Plaza Hotel, a $29 million yacht, and a Puma helicopter. Because the couple made regular appearances on the wealthy New York social scene as well as other trendy locations around the world (reached on their private 727 Boeing jet), Ivana and her husband regularly appeared in the social and gossip columns. In 1988 Ivana became a naturalized U.S. citizen.

Given their high profile life, it is not surprising that when the marriage began to falter, the tabloid press was quick to make the most of it. On February 11, 1990 Liz Smith, a gossip columnist for the New York publication Daily News, broke the story with a front–page headline "Love on the Rocks." According to Ladies' Home Journal, Smith reported that Ivana "was devastated that Donald was betraying her.... Intimates say Ivana had every chance to continue being Mrs. Trump by allowing her husband to live in an open marriage so he could see other women. But the bottom line is she won't give up her self–respect to do it."

Those who had followed the Trump's marriage were less than surprised. Rumors had been spreading for several years, especially regarding Trump's alleged multiple affairs. The situation garnered considerable press coverage in December 1989 when Ivana and Trump's mistress Marla Maples, a 26–year–old model, had a confrontation on the Aspen ski slopes. Maples reportedly demanded to know if Ivana loved Trump, telling Ivana that she was in fact in love with him. The all–too–public episode fueled the flames of the media frenzy and signaled the beginning of the end of the Trumps' marriage. Maclean's Tim Powis wrote of the marriage: "It was a spectacle of wretched excess. For New York City's flamboyant tabloid newspapers, it was an occasion for lurid headlines and sharp surges in circulation. The highly publicized separation of [Donald and Ivana Trump] became one of the most closely followed marital disputes in history."

Chronology: Ivana Trump

1949: Born.

1973: Married and divorced Alfred Winklmayr.

1973: Immigrated to Canada.

1977: Married Donald Trump.

1985: Became president of Trump's Castle Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

1988: Became president of the Plaza Hotel in New York City; gained U.S. citizenship.

1990: Separated from Trump.

1991: Finalized divorce; established Ivana, Inc.

1992: Wrote novel For Love Alone.

1993: Began appearing on Home Shopping Network; established House of Ivana company; published Free to Love.

1995: Married Riccardo Mazzucchelli; published The Best is Yet to Come.

1997: Divorced from Mazzucchelli.

1999: Debuted magazine Ivana's Living in Style.

2000: Created Haute Couture & Company.

After lengthy legal negotiations to establish the validity of the couple's prenuptial agreement, as well as three postnuptial agreements, the divorce became official in March 1991. According to reports of the settlement, Ivana did not get as much as she wanted but she was hardly left with financial worries. The final settlement awarded Ivana a $10 million certified check, with a guarantee of another $4 million when she vacated the Trump Tower. She was also given the house in Greenwich, with a 1992 market value of $18 million and use of the Mar–a–Lago estate for one month each year. Trump also paid child support of $300,000 a year and alimony of $350,000 per year. Ivana retained custody of the couple's three children.

By the end of 1991, Ivana began dating Riccardo Mazzucchelli, an Italian businessman she met in London. The couple married in 1995, but after just 20 months, the marriage ended in divorce. According to People Weekly Ivana said of her third divorce, "I'm very sad, I cry. I love Riccardo. This is a tremendously hard time for me." Despite Ivana's pain, she also noted that she was willing and ready to move on, telling the reporter, "Do you think that I'm going to lie down and die? Not a chance, girl. Am I going to marry? Absolutely! What I really need is a little bit of brain—I really prefer that. He might be fat. He might be old. You know, it's a question of the chemistry and of two people being with each other. I have a million deals here and everywhere. I'm going to be just fine, honey."

Career Details

Soon after her marriage to Trump, Ivana was looking for a challenge to undertake. In 1979 Trump named her vice president in charge of interior design of the Trump Organization. In 1982 she took on the title of senior executive vice president. Part of her responsibility was overseeing the decorating of the Trump Tower. By most accounts, Ivana proved herself a diligent and talented decorator, albeit with a whimsy for the overdone, extravagant look. From 1985 to 1988, Ivana was the president of Trump's Castle Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. In 1988 Trump put her in charge of the Plaza Hotel, which he had recently acquired. Ivana supervised every detail of the hotel's renovation and redecoration. A New York City landmark, the hotel had fallen into disarray, but Ivana's efforts restored it to its former glory as one of the finest hotels in the city. Trump boasted—much to the dismay of feminist–minded people—that he paid Ivana an annual salary of $1 as president of the Plaza Hotel but promised her all the dresses she wanted. For her part, Ivana honored Trump's stipulation, spending nearly $500 million a year on designer fashions.

Ivana retained her position at the Plaza Hotel through the divorce proceeding, eventually stepping down in 1991. She then hit the lecture circuit, giving speeches on topics such as "Women Who Dare" for a reported $20,000 per presentation. In 1992 she became a novelist, writing For Love Alone, a thinly veiled autobiography that recounted the life of a young skier who married a rich American and then suffered through a divorce. The following year she published the sequel, Free to Love. Although not lauded as a great writer, Ivana found a niche with women who felt wronged by men and empathized with Ivana. Her first book sold over 250,000 copies. In 1991 Ivana created her own company, Ivana, Inc., to handle her speaking engagements and book sales. Later the company also began managing the business of Ivana's advice columns in the Globe, Star, Porthole, Divorce Magazine, Delo Revije, and DivorceMagazine.com.

In 1992 Ivana became inspired after watching the Home Shopping Network (HSN). Believing she had the ability to be successful, she contacted the network and in April 1993 she began appearing as a celebrity promoter. Not willing to settle for the small commission awarded guest hosts, Ivana created the House of Ivana to market her own line of clothing, jewelry, and perfumes. By 1994, hawking her own line of goods, Ivana was bringing in retail sales on the Home Shopping Network between $3.2 and $4 million a month—half of which the House of Ivana kept. Forbes reported, "This is not high–glamour stuff. The women's suits, made mostly in the Far East, sell for $180 to $280. Here's a woman accustomed to going first class selling to women who travel tourist. A contradiction?" Ivana responded: "Absolutely not.... I've been used and abused by world–class designers. 'Here's Ivana, let's give her a big bill!' You can have good–quality clothes without paying so much." In her first weekend on the air, her line of pastel spring suits sold out immediately, bringing in $1.2 million. She soon broke the HSN's record for sales per minute by selling her $280–women's tuxedo at a rate of $74,000 per minute.

Despite criticism for her over–the–top style considered in poor taste by some, Ivana continued to find success. By the second half of the 1990s, House of Ivana's gross earnings were $5 million. In 1995 she landed a deal worth millions to market her perfume line at J.C. Penney Co. Committed to proving herself as a sound businesswoman, Ivana spoke to Forbes of her commitment to her business endeavors: "I don't sing, I don't dance. I don't tell jokes well.... I am a businesswoman." In 1997 Ivana left HSN and moved her product line to Value Vision, and in 1999 she debuted her magazine Ivana's Living in Style, featuring such articles as "The Joy of Not Cooking," "High Heels: Who Should, Who Shouldn't," and "How to Get Out of a Car Elegantly." Ivana told People Weekly, "I'm for the modern woman, the woman who wants to juggle all the pieces of herself."

In 2000 Ivana established a third company, Ivana Haute Couture & Company, which conducts business for her licensing deals, her Internet venture (http://www.ivanatrump.com), and distribution of her products over the Internet. Her future plans include developing an Ivana Catalog and "Ivana Boutiques"—retail stores that would market her fashions, jewelry, scents, and publications. She has also appeared in commercials for Coors Light, Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Cotton Inc., the Milk Campaign, Comfort Inn, and American Express.

Social and Economic Impact

Some would argue the Ivana has made a career out of being famous and that her fame does not come from any particular talent in any particular field but from simply having spent nearly 13 years as the wife of Donald Trump. In the years immediately following the divorce, it appeared that being "The Donald's" wife may have been her only legacy. Ivana played heavily to the press, parading around the talk show circuit as the wronged woman who had overcome devastating personal hardship. Yet her business acumen and strong personality paid off in her numerous successful independent ventures after her marriage ended. Nonetheless, Ivana has never been the poster child of feminism. In many of her writings and appearances, Ivana seemed to be fiercely proclaiming "I am woman!" Yet at the same time, in her 1995 nonfiction book, The Best is Yet to Come, which discusses love, marriage, divorce, and children, she offers her readers a toll free number to call to find the perfect plastic surgeon.

Interestingly, Ivana has succeeded in remaking herself—independent of Trump, yet somehow always closely connected. In the 1980s she was the epitome of the decade of self–indulgence and free–flowing money. She lived her life in high society unabashedly. A lot was good, but more was better. Then after her divorce from Trump, she spent the 1990s marketing herself as the everyday woman, one who struggled to balance career, children, and romance. She found a home in the hearts of middle–class women who saw her as the underdog and who championed her cause. Yet, with three personal trainers, six homes, and a 105–foot yacht, Ivana is far from ordinary. In the winter of 2001, she was spotted on the Aspen slopes in a sable–trimmed ski suit, valued at $4,500. In the end, her overindulgences are forgiven because more important to many who follow her life and career was her steadfast refusal to accept her husband's infidelity. "A lot of women," she told People Weekly, "they know what their husband is doing and they say, 'As long as he doesn't embarrass me...' I could not do that."

Sources of Information

Contact at: Ivana, Inc.
721 5th Ave.
New York, NY 10022
Business Phone: (888)694–8262
URL: http://www.ivanatrump.com

Bibliography

Cojocaru, Steven. "Behind the Seams." People Weekly, 15 January 2001.

Cooper, Nancy. "For Richer and Richer." Ladies' Home Journal, May 1989.

Gerstenzang, Peter. "Fast Food for Thought." Entertainment Weekly, 12 May 1995.

Green, Michelle. "Riccardo, We Hardly Knew Ye." People Weekly, 21 July 1997.

"How to Live Like Ivana." Newsweek, 16 November 1998.

"Ivana Trump." Ivana Haute Couture & Company, Inc., 2001. Available at http://www.ivanatrump.com.

Machan, Dyan. "Ivana Strikes Back." Forbes, 23 October 1995.

Machan, Dyan. "Ivana's Revenge." Forbes, 7 November 1994.

Meadows, Bob, Anne–Marie O'Neill, and Liz Corcoran. "Time of Her Life: Fab at 50, Ivana has Trumped The Donald and Made her Own Millions." People Weekly, 17 May 1999.

Plaskin, Glenn. "Ivana's Heartache." Ladies' Home Journal, May 1990.

Powis, Tim. "Trump Warfare." Maclean's, 5 March 1990.