Donald Trump’s family journey: Marriages, divorces, and children

Donald Trump has won the US Presidential elections again this year. In his victory speech at Palm Beach County Convention Center, Trump thanked his supporters for his win. "This is a political victory that our country has never seen before, nothing like this. I want to thank American people for the extraordinary honour of being elected your 47th President and your 45th President," he said, while also thanking his wife Melania and his running mate JD Vance for their unconditional support.

Ivana Marie Trump was Donald Trump's first wife. A Czech-American, Ivana Marie Trump lived in Canada in the 1970s and later moved to the US where she met Donald Trump in 1976 with a group of models, and the following year Donald and Ivana got married. Recalling her first meeting with Donald Trump, she wrote in her autobiography 'Raising Trump', “We made polite small talk, no funny stuff at all. He sensed correctly that flirting would not work with me and acted like a gentleman.”
Ivana Trump was a fashion model, socialite, and businesswoman and over the years, she held key managerial positions at The Trump Organization. Donald Trump and Ivana were married from 1977 to 1990, and the power-couple were prominent tabloid figures in the 1980s in New York society. During their 15 years of marriage, Donald Trump and Ivana had three children together-- Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric. But over a decade of being together, their marriage ended abruptly when Ivana came to know about Donald Trump's affair with model Marla Maples. Donald and Ivana Trump's divorce in 1990 was big news back then and it was extensively covered in tabloids. After her divorce, she turned to having her own lines of fashion and beauty products, writing advice columns, and books. Ivana died at her home in New York City at age the age 73 in 2022.

Photo: AP Photo/ File

Donald Trump and Marla Maples continued their relationship after Trump's first divorce in 1990, and in October 1993 Marla gave birth to her first child, Tiffany, with Donald Trump. And while Donald Trump had earlier said that he had no plans to marrying again, he ended up marrying Marla Maples shortly after their daughter Tiffany was born. However, Donald Trump's second marriage with Marla Maples was also short lived as they separated in May 1997. Their court hearings continued for two years, and they finally got divorced in 1999. Talking about what caused the divorce, Marla Maples told PEOPLE in an earlier interview, that she and Donald Trump had different views on life and how they should raise their child. She also revealed that she felt like she was “playing a role” as that was “what the job called for.”

Despite their differences and divorce, Donald Trump and Marla Maples seem to have friendly equations. They even celebrated Easter together in 2023, as per reports.

While Donald Trump was still separated from his second wife Marla Maples, he met his now-wife Melania. Their's was a chance meeting in 1998 at a New York Fashion Week party which was hosted by Paolo Zampolli-- a former modelling agent. However, Trump was attending the party with another date when he first met Melania and asked her for her number. Back then Melania Knauss (her maiden name) was a Slovenian-born model and seeing that Trump already had a date, instead of giving her number she asked him for his. Melania was "struck by his energy” in their first meeting, she told Harper’s Bazaar in a 2016 interview. She later contacted Trump after a few days, and they soon started dating. The rest, as they say, is history. After dating each other for roughly six years, Donald Trump and Melania finally got married in 2005 in a lavish wedding hosted at their Mar-a-Lago estate, and a year later they had their only son, Barron Trump, in 2006. Donald Trump and Melania have been married for roughly 20 years now.Photo: AP Photo

By winning the 2024 US Presidential elections, Donald Trump is all set to become the 47th US President—the second former president in US history to be re-elected after a four-year hiatus. Melania will join him as the First Lady of the US, for the second time.