Ivana Trump was more than the first wife of Donald Trump and the mother of his three oldest children (Donald, Ivanka and Eric). This businesswoman, born in the former Czechoslovakia in 1949, brought much more than glamor to a tabloid relationship and became a pillar of the real estate empire forged with her husband. It was the former president of the United States himself who this Thursday announced her death at his home in Manhattan, at the age of 73. She did not specify cause, but police are investigating whether she fell down the stairs at her Upper East Side home. The agents indicated that there are no signs that she forced herself in and everything points, according to those sources, to an accidental death.

“I feel very sad to inform all those who loved her, of which there are many, that Ivana Trump has passed away at her home in New York,” he wrote. “She was a wonderful, beautiful and amazing woman who had a great and inspiring life. Her pride and joy were her three children, Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric. She was very proud of them, just as we are proud of her. Rest in peace Ivana,” she added.

Often described as a person obsessed with details and addicted to work, Ivana worked side by side with her husband, not caring that he later claimed all the credit for the Trump Organization, a company in which he played a fundamental role since their marriage. , in 1977. Her signature appears alongside her husband’s on numerous projects, such as the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue or the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort in Atlantic City (New Jersey), perhaps the greatest dream of greatness of the businessman and one of the worst failures of those that mark the career of the one who became president of the United States and that it seems clear that he will try again.

Ivana Trump was the company’s vice president for interior design and served as manager of the most valued part of its properties, the Plaza Hotel, while in charge of the education of her three children. The couple divorced in the early 1990s. The separation took place in 1992. Her last husband, Rossano Rubicondi, died last year. Speaking to People, she Ivana said she was “devastated” by the disappearance of the Italian actor.

Her divorce battle from Donald Trump in the 1990s became the stuff of dreams for Big Apple tabloid tabloids. In a legal statement during that process, she went so far as to accuse Trump of raping her, though she later said she shouldn’t be taken literally. In her book, published in 2017, Raising Trump (something like “raising Trump”), Ivana revealed how she discovered that her husband was cheating on her.

“That young blonde unexpectedly approached me and said: ‘I’m Marla and I’m in love with your husband, and you?’ confessed the teased wife. “I told her to get lost, that she loved my husband. It wasn’t ladylike but I was in shock.” It went even further because Donald Trump, posing as a public relations man, called The New York Post and claimed that Marla had enjoyed the best sex of her life. And the Post published it. Ivana maintained a discreet life while her ex served as president of the United States.