Ivana Trump Popular Books

Ivana Trump Biography & Facts

Ivana Marie Trump (née Zelníčková, Czech: [ˈzɛlɲiːtʃkovaː]; February 20, 1949 – July 14, 2022) was a Czech-American businesswoman, socialite, and model. She lived in Canada in the 1970s, before relocating to the United States and marrying Donald Trump in 1977. She held key managerial positions in The Trump Organization, as vice president of interior design, as CEO and president of Trump's Castle casino resort, and as manager of the Plaza Hotel. Ivana and Donald Trump were prominent figures in New York society throughout the 1980s. The couple's divorce, granted in 1990, was the subject of extensive media coverage. Following the divorce, she developed her own lines of clothing, fashion jewelry, and beauty products which were sold on QVC UK and the Home Shopping Network. She wrote an advice column for Globe called "Ask Ivana" from 1995 through 2010, and published several books, including works of fiction, self-help, and the autobiography Raising Trump. Early life and education Ivana Marie Zelníčková was born on February 20, 1949, in Gottwaldov, Czechoslovakia (now Zlín, Czech Republic), the daughter of Miloš Zelníček and Marie Zelníčková (née Francová). She was raised in a Catholic household. Her father was an electrical engineer and her mother worked as a telephone operator. Her father encouraged his daughter's skiing abilities, a practice she began at age four. After developing skills as a skier, Ivana joined the junior national ski team, which offered her opportunities to travel beyond the Soviet-era communist boundaries of what was then the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. She attended Charles University in Prague and earned a master's degree in physical education in 1972. In 1970, Ivana appeared on Czechoslovak Television in the children's television series Pan Tau.Accounts differ as to Ivana's history in competitive skiing. It was reported that she was selected as an alternate on the Czechoslovak ski team during the 1972 Winter Olympics, specializing in downhill and slalom. However, in 1989, Petr Pomezný, Secretary General of the Czechoslovak Olympic Committee, denied the claim and stated that despite searching extensively, no record could be found of her involvement. Emigration to Canada In 1971, Zelníčková married Alfred Winklmayr, an Austrian ski instructor and her platonic friend, in order to obtain Austrian citizenship. The marriage granted her the freedom to leave Czechoslovakia without defection so she could retain the right to return to visit her parents. As Ivana Winklmayr, she received her Austrian passport in March 1972. The following year, she obtained an absentee divorce from Alfred Winklmayr in Los Angeles, California, where he had moved to teach skiing.Zelníčková was romantically involved with the lyricist and playwright George (Jiři) Staidl who was killed in a car accident in 1973. After Staidl's death, Zelníčková moved to Canada where she lived with George (Jiři) Syrovatka whom she had dated since 1967; Syrovatka had defected to Canada in 1971 and owned a ski boutique in Montreal. She claimed at the time to be married to Syrovatka, though the two never wed. Zelníčková worked as a ski instructor while living in Canada. She lived in Montreal for two years where she continued to improve her English via night courses at McGill University. Working as a model, Zelníčková told the Montreal Gazette in 1975 that she considered modelling to be a job, rather than a career. Her modelling clients included Eaton's department store and the fashion designer Auckie Sanft, along with promotional work for the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. Marriage to Donald Trump Ivana was in New York City with a group of models in 1976 when she met Donald Trump. On April 9, 1977, the couple married at Marble Collegiate Church in a wedding officiated by Norman Vincent Peale. They became tabloid figures in New York society during the 1980s and worked together on several large projects, including the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, the renovation of the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City, and the construction of the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey. During the marriage, Ivana and Donald had three children: Donald Jr. (born 1977), Ivana (Ivanka) Marie (born 1981), and Eric (born 1984). Donald Jr. learned to speak fluent Czech (with the help of his maternal grandfather), while Ivanka gained only a basic understanding of her mother's native tongue, and Eric was not exposed to the language since, by the time of his birth, his grandparents were comfortable using English.A reviewer of the 2018 Netflix documentary miniseries on Donald, Trump: An American Dream, described Ivana as a "charismatic workaholic, a career woman, an equal", and a life partner deliberately chosen by Trump to "work beside him and challenge him."The Trumps' troubled marriage became the subject of public interest over the Christmas holiday in 1989 when—on vacation in Aspen, Colorado—they were observed fighting after Ivana encountered Donald's mistress Marla Maples. The Chicago Tribune reported that by February 1990, Donald had locked Ivana out of her office at the Plaza Hotel, and a legal battle ensued over the legitimacy of the four prenuptial agreements the pair had successively negotiated over the years.In October 1990, Ivana's 63-year-old father, Miloš Zelníček, died suddenly from a heart attack. According to The Guardian, her father was an informer for Czechoslovakia's Státní bezpečnost (StB) intelligence service who relayed information from his daughter, including a correct prediction that George H. W. Bush would win the 1988 presidential election. Despite their marital troubles and pending divorce, Donald stood at her side at her father's funeral in Zlín held in November 1990.The Trumps' divorce proceedings received worldwide publicity. Front-page coverage appeared in New York tabloid newspapers for eleven days in a row, and the story was the subject of Liz Smith's entire news coverage for three months. In a deposition relating to their divorce, Ivana accused Donald of rape and of pulling out handfuls of her hair. In Harry Hurt III's book Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump, she confirmed that she had "felt violated". However, in a statement provided by Donald and his lawyers, she said that she had used the word "rape", but she did not "want [her] words to be interpreted in a literal or criminal sense." The uncontested divorce was granted in December 1990 on the grounds of cruel and inhumane treatment by Donald. Ivana had to sign a non-disclosure agreement as a condition of the divorce settlement, and she was required to seek Donald's permission before publicly discussing their marriage. The New York Times reported in 1991 that Ivana's divorce settlement included $14 million, a 45-room Connecticut mansion, an apartment in the Trump Plaza, and the use of Mar-a-Lago for one month a year. Career During her marriage to Donald, Ivana took on major roles in The .... 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Best Seller Ivana Trump Books of 2024

  • Women Who Work synopsis, comments

    Women Who Work

    Ivanka Trump

    NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!Ivanka is donating the unpaid portion of her advance and all future royalties received from Women Who Work to the Ivanka M. Trump Charitable Fund, a ...

  • The Trump Card synopsis, comments

    The Trump Card

    Ivanka Trump

    From the daughter of business mogul Donald Trump and a rising star in the Trump organization, this New York Times bestseller is a business book for young women on how to achieve su...

  • Raising Trump synopsis, comments

    Raising Trump

    Ivana Trump

    In Raising Trump, Ivana Trump reflects on her extraordinary life and the raising of her three childrenDonald Jr., Eric, and Ivankaand recounts the lessons she taught her children a...

  • The Federalist Papers synopsis, comments

    The Federalist Papers

    Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay & Isaac Kramnick

    Written at a time when furious arguments were raging about the best way to govern America, The Federalist Papers had the immediate pratical aim of persuading New Yorkers to accept ...

  • Trump and Me synopsis, comments

    Trump and Me

    Mark Singer

    Ever since Donald Trump entered the presidential racein a press conference attended by paid actors, in which he slandered Mexican immigrantshe has dominated headlines, becoming the...

  • The Trump Women synopsis, comments

    The Trump Women

    Nina Burleigh

    New York Times bestselling author and awardwinning journalist, Nina Burleigh, explores Donald Trump’s attitudes toward women by providing indepth analysis and background on the wom...

  • Trump Revealed synopsis, comments

    Trump Revealed

    Michael Kranish & Marc Fisher

    A comprehensive biography of Donald Trump, the Republican frontrunner in the presidential election campaign. Trump Revealed will be reported by a team of awardwinning Washington Po...

  • How They Made It in America synopsis, comments

    How They Made It in America

    Fiona Citkin Ph.D

    Immigrants have been coming to America since the beginning of the seventeenth century in pursuit of their dreams and a better life. Unfortunately in recent years, these very people...