Entertainment
If you were married to Donald Trump for 15 years, subtlety is probably never going to be your strong point.
But Ivana Trump really stuck the knife in and twisted it when it comes to her tell-all book Raising Trump. It details her childhood in Czechoslovakia, marriage to the now-President, messy divorce and subsequent years raising their children. Like all good embittered first wives, Ivana takes the occasional swipe at Donald. However, she saves particular venom for Marla Maples and Melania Trump, his second and third wives respectively.
In the book, Ivana reveals that she first met Donald at a Manhattan restaurant. He proceeded to pick up the tab for all of her friends, drove them back to the hotel then sent one hundred roses to her room.
READ MORE: Six facts about Melania Trump that may surprise you
Before long, the two were married in a lavish ceremony and three children followed. But alas, it was not to last and their marriage broke down when Donald notoriously cheated on Ivana with Marla Maples, a model turned actress. And so the mud-slinging begins.
Ivan refers to Marla almost exclusively throughout Raising Trump as "the showgirl". Revealing how she first became aware of their affair whilst visiting a ski resort in December 1989, she writes:
This young blonde woman approached me out of the blue and said 'I’m Marla and I love your husband. Do you?’” Although Ivana maintains her response was a polite, if not ladylike: "'Get lost. I love my husband", other sources remember a slightly more juicy version, as People magazine reported at the time:
“Ivana confronted her, demanding, 'You bitch, leave my husband alone.' Trump, who was sitting within earshot putting on his skis, took off down the mountain. Wrong move: Ivana is an excellent skier; Donald is not. When the formidable Czech pushed off in hot pursuit, fascinated observers swear they saw her whip in front of Donald and then ski backwards down the slopes, wagging her finger in his face."
A messy, tabloid-fodder divorce followed. Then, Trump married Marla less than a year later and they had a daughter, Tiffany. It was apparently what Donald originally wanted to call Ivanka.
They were divorced six years later. If you’re thinking “It’s okay, Ivana’s probably over it by now” then think again. The former Mrs Trump (No. 1) said of Marla's attempts to apologise to her via a Daily Mail interview:
"[They] called to ask if I accepted the apology and I said, ‘Apology not accepted.’ This woman broke up my marriage and took away my kids’ father. I don’t care how sorry she is” before adding that she’s “doing just fine with my resentment, thank you very much."
Yet, despite all the sass poured on Marla, Trump’s third wife and current first lady Melania hasn’t escaped the wrath of Ivana either: "She can’t talk, she can’t give a speech, she doesn’t go to events, she doesn’t (seem to) want to be involved", she told the New York Daily Mail.
She later apologised for these comments, although did more recently claim to be the real first lady, boasting of her influence on the most important man in America in an interview with Good Morning America.
Apparently, not only does she have a private line to the White House, but avoids phoning him because: "I [don't] really want to call him there, because Melania is there," she said, referring the to first lady. "And I don't want to cause any kind of jealousy or something like that, because I'm basically first Trump wife. OK? I'm first lady."
Not usually one to put out press statements, the actual First Lady hit back with a comment of her own:
“Mrs. Trump has made the White House a home for Barron and The President. She loves living in Washington, DC and is honored by her role as First Lady of the United States. She plans to use her title and role to help children, not sell books. There is clearly no substance to this statement from an ex. Unfortunately only attention seeking and self-serving noise."
Pull up a stool and make yourself comfy, because knowing Ivana Trump, this is one rivalry that won't be going away anytime soon.