Ivana Trump died on July 14 at 73, the Trump family said in a statement. “Our mother was an incredible woman — a force in business, a world-class athlete, a radiant beauty, and a caring mother and friend,” the family said. “Ivana Trump was a survivor. She fled from communism and embraced this country. She taught her children about grit and toughness, compassion, and determination. She will be dearly missed by her mother, her three children, and ten grandchildren.”
She also leaves behind four ex-husbands. While Ivana’s most famous ex is Donald Trump, she was married three other times in her life: once before Donald, to Alfred Winklmayr, and twice afterward, to Riccardo Mazzucchelli and Rossano Rubicondi. As her family mourns the loss, here’s what we need to know about Ivana’s spouses through the years.
Alfred Winklymayr
Ivana Trump was born Ivana Zelníčková on Feb. 20, 1949 in the Czech Republic (formerly Czechoslovakia). In 1971, she had a “Cold War marriage’ to her platonic friend and skiing instructor, Austrian Alfred Winklmayr. This marriage granted Ivana an Austrian passport in March 1972, and she emigrated to Canada in September 1972, according to the Washington Post. After enduring a mandatory waiting period, the marriage was “dissolved” in August 1973. Ivana said she “never consummated” this marriage and that the couple never lived together.
“She wanted her freedom” from the communist regime, her divorce lawyer, Michael Kennedy, said in 1990, per the Washington Post.
Donald Trump
In 1976, Ivana made the trip to New York City with a group of her fellow models to promote the Olympic games in Montreal per New York Magazine. Donald spotted her across Maxwell’s Plum and “used his pull to get her a table.” The two fell in love, and on April 7, 1977, they tied the knot. Their marriage lasted twenty years until Donald began his affair with Marla Maples.
Ivana wrote in her memoirs that she knew her marriage to Donald was over in December 1989 when a “young blonde woman approached me out of the blue and said ‘I’m Marla and I love your husband. Do you?’ I said ‘Get lost. I love my husband.’ It was unladylike, but I was in shock.” (per The Guardian). She filed for divorce, and the subject matter became fodder for tabloids and late-night talk shows.
“I can only shake my head at how it insane it was,” Ivana wrote. “I couldn’t turn on the television without hearing my name.”
Ivana and Donald’s marriage came under scrutiny in the 2016 presidential election after scores of women came forth and accused Trump of a range of sexual misconduct, including rape. Some reports claimed Ivana signed a sworn deposition where she claimed Donald had raped her in a fit of rage after a “scalp reduction” operation left him sore and angry. Ivana said such words were not intended in a “literal or criminal” sense. Ivana never filed charges against Donald, and she openly praised him in the years since their divorce.
Riccardo Mazzucchelli
Ivana married twice more before her death. Following her split from Donald Trump in 1990, Italian entrepreneur and international businessman Riccardo Mazzucchelli began to woo her. He did so by “ending her a roomful of red roses after their first lunch date in 1991, presenting her with a 10-carat diamond when he proposed,” according to PEOPLE in 1997. She first turned him down, before giving him her hand in marriage. The two tied the knot in November 1995, but after 20 years together, they called it quits.
“I’m very sad, I cry,” said Ivana. “I love Riccardo. This is a tremendously hard time for me. It’s very painful to go through six years of relationship with a person and to be disappointed or file for divorce or whatever.”
“I loved Ivana a lot, and I think I did my very best. I did for her more than Donald ever did,” said Riccardo, per PEOPLE. The couple had a contentious split, but the confidentiality agreement in their prenup kept most of the issues behind closed doors.
“My prenup says what’s mine is mine, and what’s his is his. It is ironclad. None of us are taking nothing from each other,” said Ivana. “I don’t wash the dirty laundry in front of nobody. What happened, I really can’t comment on it because of the confidentiality agreement.” The two would sue each other – Ivana filing a $15 million breach of contract suit against her ex for allegedly violating the confidentiality clause in their prenuptial agreement, and him suing her and Donald in a British court for libel. They settled their grievances out of court.
Riccardo died in 2017 at the age of 74, according to Radar Online.
Rossano Rubicondi
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Ivana’s relationship with Donald was so good that she married her fourth husband at Mar-A-Lago in 2008. She and the Italian actor and model came when she was 59, and he was 36.
“Rossano trotted down the big spiral staircase and onto the outside terrace, where around 400 guests” — and a 12-foot-tall wedding cake — “were in attendance. He was fist pumping to the ‘Rocky’ theme,” R. Couri Hay, the press agent who was a guest, told The New York Post. “Usually, the bride enters from there and gets all the attention. But Rossano was such a proud peacock that he couldn’t help himself. Some of the guests were appalled.”
They divorced less than a year later but maintained an on-again/off-again relationship until 2019. Rossano died in 2021 at the age of 49 after complications related to melanoma. Upon the news of his passing, Ivana said, “I’m devastated.”