What you should know
- Ivana Trump’s funeral drew a lot of security because of former President Donald Trump’s attendance.
- Ivana Trump’s death has been deemed accidental by the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office.
- The afternoon funeral service is restricted and only those previously invited will be able to access.
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NEW YORK – Under heavy security, the family fired Wednesday Ivana Trump, ex-wife of former President Donald Trump, who died suddenly last week at age 73.
The death of Ivana Trump, which occurred on July 14 in her row house in East 64th Street, was declared accidental. The New York City medical examiner’s office says she died of blunt force injuries to the torso and declined to comment further. However, a senior official with direct knowledge of the matter told NBC News that the circumstances were consistent with a fall on the stairs.
There were no indications of criminality, the official said.
The Wednesday afternoon service was by invitation only and was held at St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church in Lexington Avenuebetween 65th and 66th streets, in the Upper East Sidea Trump family source told NBC News. Ivana Trump’s children, Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric, are expected to deliver the eulogy, the source said.
Guests were seen slowly entering the church just before noon, with the Secret Service marking names.
The former president’s children, their spouses and children lined up outside the church after his arrival and waited grimly as white-gloved pallbearers carried Ivana Trump’s casket from the hearse to St. Vincent. The patriarch himself reportedly arrived 10 minutes later.
Ivana’s longtime designer Dennis Basso and his longtime assistant Dorothy Curry are also expected to speak, according to the source, who said: “It’s going to be a spectacular service.” Former President Trump will be in attendance, the source told NBC News, describing the couple as “very close. He was his biggest supporter and vice versa.”
Ivana Trump: an icon in her own right
A Czech-born ski racer and sometime model, Ivana Trump married the then-future president in 1977 and became a businesswoman. She and Trump formed a publicity power couple in the 1980s, and she was the mother of her oldest children.
“I am deeply saddened to inform all who loved her, of whom there are many, that Ivana Trump passed away at her home in New York City,” Trump posted on his social media app, Truth Social. “She was a wonderful, beautiful, amazing woman who led a great and inspiring life. Her pride and joy were her three children, Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric. She was as proud of them as we all were of her. Rest in peace Ivana!”
Her children also released a statement, calling her “an incredible woman: a force in business, a world-class athlete, a radiant beauty, and a loving mother and friend. Ivana Trump was a survivor.”
“She fled communism and embraced this country,” the statement continued. “She taught her children about determination and toughness, compassion and determination. She will be greatly missed by her mother, her three children and her 10 grandchildren.”
She became an icon in her own right, oozing with ’80s style and elegance, complete with her signature beehive hairstyle. She influenced the look of the over-the-top Patsy Stone on the classic British sitcom “Absolutely Fabulous,” with her character praising Ivana as “terrific” in one episode.
Trump herself would eventually appear in the 1996 hit movie “The First Wives Club” with the now-famous line: “Ladies, you’ve got to be strong and independent, and remember, don’t be mad, get it all.”
The Trumps became partners in love and business, with Ivana taking on roles such as manager of one of their Atlantic City casinos. He worked tirelessly there and was also involved in making Trump Tower an ’80s blockbuster image, assisting the decorator and taking a keen interest in details like the doormen’s uniforms, said Barbara Res, a former Trump Organization executive who was in charge of skyscraper construction.
“She did all of that to impress Donald, to gain his approval. She traveled from one place to another all the time and left her children behind. She had a tremendous work ethic.”
The two were fixtures of New York’s see-and-be-seen scene before their equally public and messy 1992 divorce. Donald Trump had met his next wife, Marla Maples.
During the split, Ivana Trump accused him of rape in an affidavit in the early 1990s. She later said she didn’t mean it literally, but felt violated.
Donald Trump sometimes said he was sorry Ivana joined him in business and blamed him for the unraveling of their marriage.
“I think putting a wife to work is a very dangerous thing,” he told ABC News in the early 1990s. “If you’re in business for yourself, I really think it’s a bad idea to have your wife work for you,” he said. , complaining that when she became a business person, “a softness disappeared.”
However, Ivana ultimately remained friends with her ex-husband, whom she called “The Donald.” She enthusiastically endorsed her 2016 White House bid, saying she would “make big changes” in the United States, and told the New York Post that she was giving him tips on her campaign.
“We talk before and after the appearances and he asks me what I thought,” she said. She said she advised him to “be calmer.”
“But Donald cannot rest easy,” he added. “He is very frank. He just tells it like it is.”
Ivana Trump fled communism in Czechoslovakia and in 1977 she married Donald Trump. This is her story. To see more from Telemundo, visit https://www.nbc.com/networks/telemundo
As supportive as she was, she occasionally ruffled her feathers.
In 2017, while promoting a book, he told “Good Morning America” that he spoke to the then-president every two weeks and had his White House direct number, but he didn’t want to call often “because Melania is there and I don’t want to cause any harm.” any kind of jealousy or anything because I’m basically Trump’s first wife, okay? she said with a smile. “I’m the first lady, okay?”
Melania Trump’s spokesperson at the time responded, saying “there was clearly no substance to this statement from an ex, unfortunately this is just attention-seeking noise and selfishness.”
Ivana Trump had continued her business adventures in recent years, promoting an Italian diet for weight loss in 2018.
“Health is the most important thing we have. Let’s keep it up,” she said at the time.
Ivana Trump’s death came during a tense week for the Trump family. Two of her children, Donald Jr. and Ivanka, and the former president will appear in coming days for questioning in the New York attorney general’s civil investigation into the family’s business practices.
Ivana Trump was born Ivana Zelnickova in 1949 in the Czechoslovakian town of Gottwaldov, formerly Zlin, which had just been renamed by the communists who took over the country in 1948.
She was married four times, most recently to Italian actor Rossano Rubicondi. The two divorced in 2009 after a year of marriage, but continued to see each other on and off until 2019, when she told the New York Post that the relationship had come to an end. She died last year of cancer at age 49.
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