With the US election dominating headlines the world over, allies of Republican candidate Donald Trump have also taken up plenty of column inches. And some surprising names have emerged in the months leading up to the announcement of the new POTUS. There’s been support from former pop star Holly Valance, as well as the world’s richest man, Elon Musk — who has been giving away millions of dollars to voters who sign his ‘free speech’ petition in a dubious scheme via his pro-Trump political action committee, America Pac. And on college campuses, young female conservatives are rallying and organising groups in his support. But what of those closer to home?
It’s been noted that current wife and former first lady Melania Trump has been rarely seen during the campaign trail, as she’s kept a characteristically low profile. That said, she did make a surprise appearance at her husband's Madison Square Garden rally last week, hand in hand with him, and went on to speak in his defence on the Fox and Friends daily morning news show on Tuesday. The key line picked up? “He is not Hitler and his supporters stand behind him because they want to see the country successful. We see what kind of support he has.” It was a response to her husband’s previous false claiming that Vice President Kamala Harris called him Hitler.
But it isn’t just his current wife who has come forward to defend the Republican candidate in recent years. Amid a litany of backlash to the man — whose most famous line about women is that he could “grab ‘em by the p****” — his two ex-wives, Ivana Trump (before she passed away in 2022) and Marla Maples have praised Trump publicly, even after seemingly acrimonious divorces. His partners have called one of the world’s most divisive men a “companionable co-parent”, “magnetic” and “charming” in their various memoirs — including Melania’s self-titled one, out earlier this month.
Trump also had the option of active support from Maples in the presidential race. She told the Standard earlier this year that she wanted to join the frontlines of his campaign. “I’m ready. I am available if needed and I’m not sitting back anymore,” she explained in her first interview in eight years. “I want to step out more, share more and not be afraid of positive or negative outcomes that come from speaking out.” It’s a resounding endorsement not long after a New York jury found him guilty of 34 charges in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels.
The former president and business tycoon has barely been out of a relationship since the Seventies. In this time, he has either been dating or married to one of his three wives: Ivana Trump, Marla Maples and Melania Trump. During these years, he’s also been accused of sexual misconduct by at least 26 women with allegations dating up to 2016. Plus multiple affair allegations have emerged, including with Stormy Daniels and former Playboy playmate Karen McDougal, both of which have been denied by his team.
So what are the stories of his three marriages? This is how they came to be and how the first two came to an end.
Ivana Trump, née Ivana Zelníčková: a fast marriage and bitter divorce from the model who helped grow his real-estate empire
Arguably Trump’s most famous wife, Ivana Trump met her future husband in 1976 when she was a model and ski instructor. She lived in Montreal but met property mogul Trump in New York while on a job. During a dinner with fellow models, Trump approached the group and insisted on upgrading their table with himself in the seating plan, Ivana remembers in her memoir, Raising Trump.
“We made polite small talk, no funny stuff at all. He sensed correctly that flirting would not work with me and acted like a gentleman,” Ivana wrote in her book.
Trump went on to send her 100 roses, take her out for meals and call her every day for the next three months, and flew out to watch her in a catwalk show in Canada, according to the memoir.
After just a few months, she wrote that on New Year’s Eve, Donald told her: “If you don’t marry me, you’ll ruin your life.” She agreed to the engagement, and the pair went on to tie the knot in April 1977, at Marble Collegiate Church in New York City.
A year after they’d become engaged, Ivana gave birth to their first child, son Donald Jr. Daughter Ivanka (actually named Ivana Marie at birth) was born in 1981 and second son Eric in 1984.
Ivana became part of her husband’s business conglomerate Trump Organization after being made vice president of interior design. She was seemingly closely involved in the growth of his real estate empire, assisting with the construction of the Trump Tower and other properties.
The couple then went on to have a highly publicised — and acrimonious — divorce in 1990. It followed an equally highly publicised affair with Marla Maples, who would go on to become his second wife.
The two women famously met while Ivana and her husband were holidaying in Aspen. Ivana says that Maples approached her on her family ski trip — and writes in her memoir that she knew the marriage was over immediately after the interaction.
“This young blonde woman approached me out of the blue and said ‘I’m Marla and I love your husband. Do you?’” Ivana wrote. “I said ‘Get lost. I love my husband’. It was unladylike but I was in shock.”
Their divorce battle would last two years as Ivana’s lawyer argued her involvement in the Trump empire entitled her to more of his fortune than their nuptial agreement had stipulated. However, they seemed to remain more than civil after the fact. In her book she called them “companionable co-parents”, and she attended his inauguration in 2017.
Ivana passed away in 2022 in her home. She was aged 73 and was a longtime businesswoman. Trump led tributes to his ex at the time, posting a statement to his social media platform, Truth Social, remembering her as a “wonderful, beautiful, and amazing woman, who led a great and inspirational life”.
“Her pride and joy were her three children, Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric,” he wrote. “She was so proud of them, as we were all so proud of her.”
Marla Maples: the Georgian beauty queen who became the subject of infamous front-page headlines
Maples met Trump aged 21 at a tennis match in 1985. Back the, she was a homecoming queen from Georgia's Bible Belt and had just moved to New York City. And after a few years of friendship, she and Trump were involved in a secret relationship, while he was married to Ivana.
Maples is said to have moved onto the then-businessman’s boat, Princess Trump around this time, and by 1989, they were increasingly seen in public together.
Maples has since said on the ABC News podcast: “I never considered myself a mistress.” As for her half of the story about the infamous meeting between herself and Ivana, she recalls it differently from what is written in Raising Trump.
Marla claims she was flown out to Aspen by Trump and says that during a lunch meeting, the married couple’s attention turned to her. Ivana “couldn’t pronounce my name, but she was asking me if I was Moola or whatever… and she just asked if I was the one who had been loving her husband for years,” Maples told Vanity Fair. People are said to have overheard shouts of: “I have a happy marriage. I’m very happy. Stay away from him! Stay away from us!”
By 1990, there was endless news fodder about Maples, and the New York Post had run the infamous front page which read “Marla boasts to her pals about Donald: ‘BEST SEX I’VE EVER HAD’”.
Maples has since said: “Do I wish more than anything that we could have had this relationship after the divorce papers were signed? Absolutely. With all my heart. But it didn’t happen that way. Everything had to happen in the way that it did to bring us to where we are now,” as per People Magazine.
Trump and Maples went on to marry in 1993. The ceremony took place in the Grand Ballroom of Trump’s Plaza Hotel, with over 1,000 guests in attendance, including Howard Stern and OJ Simpson. It was two months after Maples gave birth to daughter Tiffany, aged 30.
Despite it seeming like an extravagant event, Trump was struggling financially at the time, with a $14 million divorce settlement having been reached with Ivana.
Ultimately, Maples and Trump split after three years. Trump then settled his second divorce by 1999, following a two-year court battle, which raged on due to a prenup. Maples claimed she hadn’t had enough time to review it before signing, reported the New York Post. Ultimately — according to documents leaked later and detailed by Vanity Fair — she walked away with $1 million, and a further $1 million for a property.
Maples raised their daughter alone in Calabasas, California. Tiffany graduated from the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington in 2020, and is now married to Michael Boulos, the Lebanese-American billionaire business heir, whom she met in Mykonos and who proposed in the White House Rose Garden just before Trump left office in 2021.
However, like Ivana before her, Maples remained in support of Trump after what seemed like a contentious split. She spoke of her support of Trump to the Standard in his electoral race, which was then against Joe Biden and now Kamala Harris. “I’ve never been a fan of politics. I see how it can separate and divide us,” she said. “At the same time, I found myself in the throes of it.” Their daughter played a part in his winning 2016 election campaign, while “my role was to give Tiffany strength”.
Speaking about the 2024 election, Maples said she was willing to join the frontline. “I’m ready. I am available if needed and I’m not sitting back anymore,” she said in July. It came after she and Tiffany celebrated Easter with Trump and Melania at Mar-a-Lago last year. And back in 2013, on an Oprah Winfrey show called Where Are They Now?, Maples said: “I still love Donald. I love Eric, Ivanka and Donnie so much.”
Melania Trump: the Slovenian model who became the US’s second foreign First Lady
Trump met model Melania, née Melanija Knavs, at the Kit Kat Klub in New York City during Fashion Week in 1998, when he was in the middle of divorcing Maples. She is said to have denied his request for her number (he was attending the event with another woman) and instead called him, agreeing to a first date at his Seven Springs property in Bedford, New York which led to them dating.
After a few short breakups, Trump famously proposed at the Met Gala in 2004. They then married at Bethesda-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church in Palm Beach, Florida. The reception took place at Donald’s Mar-a-Lago resort and featured a performance by Billy Joel.
The couple’s son, Barron Trump, was born in 2006. Melania stayed largely out of the public eye while raising her young child. She also kept a relatively low profile once her husband announced plans to run for president in 2015, though made a statement that she was “100 per cent” in support of him.
Speaking ahead of her husband being elected, she told CNN of the possibility of becoming FLOTUS: “I will be me. I will be different than any other first ladies.” She then became the first foreign-born First Lady since John Quincy Adams’ wife, Louisa in 1829. At the time aged 45, her promises were otherwise conventional: “I will help women, I will help children – they are our future. They need our guidance and help.”
In the role, Melania continued to keep a relatively low profile during her husband’s controversial stint. She didn’t move into the White House until five months after her husband, when her son had finished his school year.
She maintained her tight-lipped approach to news that her husband had paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 shortly before the election to keep quiet about their alleged affair, said to have taken place in 2006, when Barron was a few months old. Former Playboy girl Karen McDougal also claimed to have had a relationship with Trump between 2006 and 2007. The White House denied the affairs and for her part Melania did not respond.
After People reported that a close friend of Trump’s had said that the pair spent “very little to no time together”, her spokesperson came forward to deny the claim.
Melania stayed true to form and avoided courting the controversy surrounding her husband once he was out of office and the pair moved to Palm Beach.
So far on the POTUS campaign trail, Melania has made several appearances: one in her hometown of Palm Beach at a polling station event in May, and again at his Madison Square Garden rally last week. Earlier this month, the release of her self-titled memoir gave some rare insight into her first meeting with Trump. She recalled that “from the moment our conversation began, I was captivated by his charm and easygoing nature”.
She also discusses abortion rights in the tome, which has resulted in criticism from anti-abortion Republicans. “It is imperative to guarantee that women have autonomy in deciding their preference of having children, based on their own convictions, free from any intervention or pressure from the government,” she writes.
Is this the start of a more public-facing phase for Melania? She may be buoyed by her book topping the New York Times chart ahead of its release. But as she said after her short appearance on Trump’s campaign trail in Florida: “Stay tuned.”
