Melania Trump may have issued judgement too soon when it comes to her husband’s first wife.
The first lady issued a statement through her spokesman Monday afternoon, calling Ivana Trump an ‘attention seeker’ after the president’s ex called herself the real ‘first lady’ in an interview on Good Morning America to publicize her new memoir, Raising Trump.
On Tuesday, Fox & Friends aired an interview which they taped with Ivana before Monday’s drama, and in it she speaks kindly of her husband’s new wife.
In the interview, Ainsley Earhardt points out a passage in the book, in which Ivana describes how the the topic of Melania came up at a lunch with some lady friends during the campaign.
Ivana Trump (left) spoke kindly of her ex-husband the President’s new wife Melania (right) in an interview on Fox & Friends that aired Tuesday
Ivana says that the media reported on the lunch and misconstrued what she had said.
‘I said that she’s a very nice girl and it’s very tough to be on a campaign. I think the media reported that, “You know, she can not speak, she cannot this,”‘ Ivana recalled.
Ivana said she couldn’t possibly have said that because she also learned English as a second language.
‘I have an accent and she has an accent. We both immigrants, so that really didn’t come from me,’ Ivana said.
After the story came out, Ivana said she reached out to Melania to set the record straight.
‘I sent Melania the text [saying], “The last thing I would like to do is say something bad about you. Because you are family. And I don’t say anything bad or do anything bad to a family member,”‘ Ivana recalled.
Further more, in the Fox interview, Ivana says she has no interest in being first lady.
‘Do you ever look at [the president’s] position and Melania being the first lady and think, “That’s where I should be?’ Earhardt asked.
‘Not at all,’ Ivana replied. ‘Washington is tough town. I was asked to be American ambassador to Czech Republic. I told [the President], I said if you would have asked me 10 or 15 yeas ago I would do it.
‘But now, I don’t want to be in Prague for four years. Could I do well? Yes. But I would lose my freedom. So, you know, I’m glad that Melania is there and I’m here,’ she said.
The interview was taped a week before the first lady and the president’s first wife got into a public fued, after Ivana called herself the real ‘first lady’ in an interview on GMA (above)
Ivana was a little more vague about her feelings in her Good Morning America interview, which aired Monday.
In that interview, she said that she and the President remain close, talking about once every two weeks.
She said she even has a direct line to the White House, but doesn’t use it because she doesn’t want to come between Trump and Melania.
‘Melania is there and I don’t want to cause any kind of jealousy or anything like that because I’m the first Trump wife. I’m the first lady, OK?’ she said.
It was that comment that seemed to send the first lady into a fury. Within a few hours of the interview airing, Melania issued an official statement through her spokesman, calling Ivana an ‘attention seeker’.
‘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,’ the statement from spokesman Stephanie Grisham reads.
‘There is clearly no substance to this statement from an ex. Unfortunately only attention seeking and self-serving noise,’ the first lady’s spokesman said in a statement. Melania pictured above with the President and their son Barron back in June
Above, the full statement issued through the first lady’s office on Monday
Melania’s statement sent the internet into a frenzy, with many entertained by the idea of reality TV-style feud within the Trump family.
Andy Cohen, who produces the Real Housewives shows for Bravo, tweeted that ‘even I AM SPEECHLESS’.
‘This is actually happening. All the wives are fighting,’ he said.
He later offered to mediate a ‘Real Housewives of the White House’ reunion between the two, to clear the air.
Andy Cohen, producer of the Real Housewives franchises, was one of the many reacting to the fued online
Cohen later offered to mediate a conversation between the two, to clear the air
And it’s not just Melania and Ivana who are fighting. In all three of the interviews she’s given so far to promote her new book, Ivana has slammed Trump’s second wife Marla Maples – calling her a ‘showgirl’ and blaming her for the failure of her marriage.
It was Trump’s affair with Maples that led to his divorce with Ivana in 1992. Trump and Maples married the following year, but divorced in 1997, after having one child together – daughter Tiffany.
In all three of her interviews, Ivana refused to call Maples anything other than ‘showgirl’.
She told Fox that she Maples tried to apologize to her for the affair, but that she still hasn’t forgiven her.
‘She asked for apology and I said her apology is not accepted. And I never accept her apology. I just think she’s showgirl, I think she ruined my marriage, and she doesn’t deserve apology,’ Ivana said.
She told GMA that Trump and Maples’ affair was the last straw for her marriage, since the trust in the relationship was broken.
But since their divorce was finalized, she says she and her ex have been able to start a friendship that continues to this day.
Ivana (pictured with Trump in 1984) said she was able to start a friendship with her ex after their divorce was settled
The 68-year-old Czech Republic native (left) blamed the end of her marriage on ‘showgirl’ Marla Maples, who Trump cheated on her with and eventually married as his second wife (Maples and Trump pictured on the right)
‘Donald during the divorce was brutal. He took the divorce as a business deal and he cannot lose. He has to win. So it took about two years and after the final situation was straightened up, he was just talk and we are friends,’ Ivana said.
Ivana also talked about Maples in a Sunday interview with CBS.
‘I don’t talk about her. She’s a showgirl. Never achieve anything in her life,’ Trump said of Maples, who stared in The Will Rogers Follies on Broadway in 1991.
Trump was married to Maples (pictured in February) for six years. They have one daughter, Tiffany
She then implied that Maples gets the blame for her marriage ending.
‘Well, she was flirting… and I think she was flirting and and she got away with it,’ Trump said.
When asked if she blames Donald now for their marriage ending, Trump replied: ‘I’m not sure, because Donald would get 1,000 business cards in the pocket every night. He could choose any girl he wanted to have.
‘So I’m not sure if she was. There could be another one, could be another one. I really don’t know.’
In her CBS interview, Ivana was actually complimentary toward Melania, at least in relation to Maples.
When asked the difference between the two, Ivana said: ‘One is nobody. And the other one is first lady.’
Ivana also revealed that her ex-husband offered her the ambassadorship to the Czech Republic but she turned it down so she could keep up her jet-set lifestyle and summers in Saint-Tropez.
Ivana gave a sit-down interview with Good Morning America to detail her new book, Raising Trump
The Czech native had long been rumored for the post – and floated the idea herself in a 2016 interview with the New York Post.
‘I was just offered to be the American ambassador to Czech Republic – and Donald told me. He said, ‘Ivana, if you want it, I give it to you,’ she told the network.
‘But I like my freedom. I like to do what I want to do, go wherever I want to go with whomever I want to go. And I can afford my lifestyle,’ she explained.
‘Okay, why would I go and say bye-bye to Miami in the winter, bye-bye to Saint-Tropez in the summer, and bye-by to spring and fall in New York? I have a perfect life,’ she said.
Trump had put out the idea herself during the campaign – when she notably backed her ex and said nice things about him during his run.
Instead, Trump nominated Stephen B. King, a Wisconsin political operative, to the post in July.
Ivana and Marla’s issues go back to the 90s, and even appeared to have had an impact on Ivana’s plans to attend Trump’s inauguration in January.
At the time, Page Six reported that Ivana skipped the Inaugural Ball so she wouldn’t have to run into Marla.
‘[Ivana] had planned to go out and celebrate after the swearing-in, but when she found out that Marla was going, she canceled,’ an insider told Page Six.
She was also nowhere to be seen at the actual inauguration, unable to sit in her reserved front row seat because she brought her wheelchair-bound mother Marie Zelnickova with her.
Just a few hours later, she was on a flight making her way back to New York City.
Marla meanwhile attended the inaugural ball alongside daughter Tiffany and her daughter’s boyfriend Ross Mechanic.
She also spent the night before the big event hanging out with former Real Housewives of New York star Jill Zarin.
At the inauguration, she was photographed alongside her friends, and later that day slipped into a $2,200 John Paul Attaker gown from the label’s Spring/Summer 2017 collection for the big night.
Ivana reportedly skipped the Inaugural balls in January, so as to avoid running into Maples (Ivana pictured leaving her New York City apartment, en route to the Inauguration)
Maples attended the Inauguration and balls following with her daughter Tiffany in January
Ads Trump’s current wife, Melania had the honor of holding the Bible which he was sworn in with
Ivana was not spotted by anyone, even on social media, at the ceremony, so there is a chance she may have elected to watch some of her grandchildren while her children were out for their father’s big day.
Ivana was a 28-year-old model from Czechoslovakia in 1977 when she married Donald.
The couple went on to have three children – Donald Jr, Ivanka and Eric – before divorcing in 1992.
She was rumored to have gotten approximately $20million, their $15million estate and 49% ownership in Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach in their divorce.
She also reportedly receives $350,000 a year in alimony and was able to keep all her jewelry.
At the time there was also much talk about Donald’s relationship with Marla, and rumors that Ivana had it out with the other woman on the ski slopes of Aspen.
Donald said around that time in an interview with Vanity Fair: ‘To tell you the truth, I’ve made Ivana a very popular woman. I’ve made a lot of satellites. Hey, whether it’s Marla or Ivana. Marla can do any movie she wants to now. Ivana can do whatever she wants.’
Ivana told a much different story however to Liz Smith about the horrible impact the divorce was allegedly having on the couple’s children.
‘The children are all wrecks. I don’t know how Donald can say they are great and fine,’ said Ivana.
‘Ivanka now comes home from school crying, “Mommy, does it mean I’m not going to be Ivanka Trump anymore?” Little Eric asks me, “Is it true you are going away and not coming back?”‘
Marla also spoke about her relationship with Ivana in People last year, responding to Ivana’s comments to DailyMail.com that she did not accept Marla’s apology for her role in the breakup of her marriage to Trump.
‘That makes me sad because I wish her nothing but love,’ said Marla.
‘I love her kids, and if she’s holding any kind of resentment toward me, I really hope, for her sake, that she can forgive me.’
Maples also said of her time with Trump; ‘If I had to do it over again, I would just live my life and not worry so much about what other people thought.
‘I wish I had had more fun. Even during the crazy times, I wish I’d laughed more.’
Ivana went on to get married two more times, first to Riccardo Mazzucchelli in 1995, a union that was dissolved after two years.
She was married for the second time to Rossano Rubicond in 2008, but that union lasted less than a year with the two divorcing in 2009, though they have been seen together many times since.
Marla never remarried after divorcing Trump.
The negativity for Ivana and Donald’s divorce appears to have transferred to their children as well.
In an interview with Vanity Fair last year, Ivanka Trump said she adores her little sister Tiffany, but said she’s not close with Maples.
‘She’s my little sister! I’ve been close to Tiffany her whole life, and I really love her,’ Ivanka said.