Divorce from Ivana Trump Becomes Tabloid Sensation

The Aspen Confrontation

The very public collapse of Donald and Ivana Trump’s marriage exploded into the headlines in late December 1989 and early 1990. The couple had been married since 1977 and had three children, Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric. But Trump had begun an affair with Marla Maples, a 26-year-old actress and model from Georgia. The relationship was an open secret in New York social circles, but it became public in spectacular fashion during a family ski vacation in Aspen, Colorado, over the Christmas holidays.

According to multiple accounts, Maples confronted Ivana on the slopes, reportedly saying, “I’m Marla and I love your husband. Do you?” The encounter triggered a chain of events that would dominate New York’s tabloid newspapers for months and make the Trump divorce one of the most intensely covered celebrity breakups in American history.

The Tabloid War

The New York Post and the Daily News waged a fierce circulation war over the Trump divorce, devoting day after day of front-page coverage to every twist and detail. The most famous headline, published by the New York Post on February 16, 1990, read “BEST SEX I’VE EVER HAD,” a quote attributed to Maples about her relationship with Trump. The coverage turned all three principals into household names and established the model for the celebrity-obsessed tabloid culture that would define the 1990s.

Trump appeared to revel in the attention even as the divorce proceedings grew acrimonious. He leaked details to favored reporters, played the newspapers against each other, and used the media spotlight to maintain his public profile at a time when his business empire was quietly beginning to crumble under the weight of massive debts.

The Settlement

The divorce was finalized in 1991. Ivana Trump received an estimated $14 million in cash, a 45-room mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut, an apartment in the Trump Plaza building, and the use of the Trump family’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach for one month per year. The settlement was based on a postnuptial agreement that had been revised multiple times during the marriage.

The divorce had consequences beyond the personal. It stripped away the facade of the Trump brand as a stable family enterprise and exposed the chaotic reality beneath the polished surface. Ivana, who had managed the Plaza Hotel and played a significant role in the Trump Organization, went on to build her own business career. Trump would marry Maples in 1993; that marriage would also end in divorce, in 1999.