While Donald Trump continues to make headlines long after his presidency, especially with the committee's public hearings on Jan. 6, probably no one knows what the former president looks like behind closed doors better than his current and former wives.
After 15 years of marriage to his first wife, Czech-American businesswoman and former model Ivana Trump, all the lessons learned during their time together were still not enough for a successful second marriage. Donald's second wife, American actress, model and singer Marla Maples made headlines in the '90s with the messy beginnings of their affair that turned into a relationship that developed while Donald was still married to Ivana. The relentless media coverage only increased when news of a Maples-Trump split hit the airwaves.
Six years together, almost four years of marriage and a child later, the former It couple still have detectives trying to piece together the story about what went wrong between the two. This is what we know to be the truth behind why Donald Trump and Marla Maples resigned.
Marla Maples and Donald Trump come from different worlds
Even at the height of their relationship, Marla Maples acknowledged that she and Donald Trump led different lifestyles. Maples was born in 1963 in Cohutta, Georgia, which reported a 2020 population of 700, the highest number recorded since the city's inception. "I'm like, from the land, from the country, from a strong, firm belief in God," Maples told Vanity Fair in 1990.
Maples also told Maximum Ink that her childhood was simple, marked by climbing trees, fording streams and pastures, and chasing cattle. The small-town beauty pageant queen was Trump's polar opposite, a New York native born 18 years before her. Trump's father, Fred Trump, was a businessman who had his own real estate empire that raised millions for Donald and his brothers. Maples didn't even see the streets of New York until she moved there in 1985. Although she had ambitious career aspirations, Maples didn't know that kind of wealth.
"He would be happier living on a farm away from everyone and not being in this particular world, and here he is representing everything that some people think is very materialistic," she added.
Trump wasn't happy about Maples' pregnancy
Donald Trump's first daughter, Ivanka Trump, has been famous for her father, who referred to her as her favorite in an interview with New York Magazine. After acknowledging the favorite game when it comes to "daddy's girl," Donald recalled his second daughter, Tiffany Trump, born 12 years after Ivanka in 1993. Tiffany is Donald's fourth child and the only child of Marla Maples. .
“Do you know that I have another daughter, with Marla, named Tiffany? She is also a beautiful and cool girl. But she is very different. When you have separate wives, she's like...independent," she told the magazine. Donald revealed his true feelings about Maples' pregnancy while he chatted with controversial radio host, Howard Stern, on the "Howard Stern Show" in 2004 (via Factba.se).
"Honestly, I'm glad it happened. I have a great little daughter, Tiffany », he began. "But, at that point it was like, 'Excuse me, what happened?' And then I was like, 'Well, what are we going to do with this?' She [Maples] was like, 'Are you serious? It is the most beautiful day of our lives. I was like, 'Oh great.'"
Trump's priority was to build his empire
Amidst running multiple casinos, hotels and housing developments, it's no surprise that Donald Trump has been too busy to spend much time with his daughter Tiffany Trump. When Tiffany was born, Donald's focus was on taking his casinos public to earn enough money to pay off some debts.
Marla Maples opened up to US Weekly about what it was like raising her daughter. “Her dad loves her, of course, but… I was her dad. I was the father who was there in person. [and] with her all the time," he said. Even before their divorce was finalized, Donald published a book addressing his views on love and marriage.
“Marla was happy when it was just her, Tiffany and me. I, on the other hand, realized that business had to be constantly attended to," he wrote in "Trump: The Art of the Comeback" (via The Washington Post). Maples retired to California after her divorce and avoided the limelight to give Tiffany a fairly normal upbringing similar to her own.
The terms of the prenuptial agreement
In the couple's prenuptial agreement, Donald Trump presented himself as the pinnacle of wealth, worth $1.17 billion. Despite that figure, Trump did not agree with what he initially asked for Marla Maples in case of divorce. Maples reportedly sought $25 million from the former president in a prenuptial agreement, but settled for $1 million if they split within five years, plus another $1 million to put toward a house for her.
"We basically made an agreement that for the first couple of years we would agree on something and then break it," she told Vanity Fair. Although Maples was reportedly not a fan of prenuptial agreements and refrained from signing one for some time, her desire to marry outweighed her doubts. Both sides agreed to renegotiate the document after five years and married in 1993. Conveniently for Trump, they parted ways after nearly four years.
Allegations of alleged Maples cheating made headlines
Rumors that Marla Maples and Donald Trump were dating began circulating when Donald was still married to his first wife, Ivana Trump. Donald, no stranger to affair accusations (per Business Insider), wasn't in the hot seat when it came to another alleged infidelity this time. Instead, it was Maples who grabbed the headlines after being caught with Donald's former bodyguard on the beach near Mar-a-Lago. Spencer Wagner was the bodyguard in question, and police caught him with Maples under the lifeguard station in the early hours of the morning.
Both Maples and Donald denied anything happened, with Maples claiming it was nothing more than her taking a bathroom break. However, Donald fired Wagner four months after the incident. Wagner's story changed over the years. At first, he also denied the affair, but later said that he and Maples were kissing on that fateful night. A year later, Donald and Maples announced their divorce.
Maples reportedly said her marriage was based on wishful thinking.
Marla Maples and Donald Trump separated in May 1997 and officially divorced in June 1999. A few months after their divorce, London's Daily Telegraph published an interview (via the New York Post), where Maples offered some insight into why their marriage was dissolved. She not only said that the marriage was "built on an illusion," but she also said that Trump was never the man she wanted to marry.
"I'm so happy to be away from Donald and I'm just trying to get as far away from him as I can," she said. “I finally found the courage to walk away and stay away. After becoming a mother, I was less willing to tolerate his behavior." To top it off, the Daily Telegraph cited Maples' description of her ex-husband as an obsessive person driven by her ego (via Newsweek).
A Maples spokeswoman said the Telegraph interviewer took the quotes out of context, but did not indicate which quotes specifically.
Trump was happy to divorce Maples
Donald Trump appeared on the "Howard Stern Show" immediately after the divorce in 1999 and offered a low-key response to his feelings about Marla Maples and her agreement with him. Stern stirred the pot when he joked that "Marla Maples was great and all, but he knew Donald was going to get a divorce because there were too many women." [were] throwing themselves at him." Trump neither confirmed nor denied that claim, but coyly replied, "She was really good, a good person...you know, in all fairness, we had a great time" (via Factba.se). “She stayed by my side. You know, in the early '90s, I had a tough time, and it wasn't the best time of my life, and she was there," he said.
Trump apparently backtracked on her praising comments when he appeared on the show again later that year. Stern said that he had recently been looking at photos of Maples and commented that she had broken down. "You got rid of her at just the right time," Stern said. Unsurprisingly, Trump agreed. "Just in time...let's just say I'm very happy" (via Factba.se).
Maples said the relationship was combative.
In 2016, Marla Maples sat down with the hosts of Access Hollywood and talked more about why her marriage failed. Maples reiterated how different she and Donald Trump were, saying they just couldn't bring out the best in each other. Maples cited her Georgia roots, family values and spiritual growth as reasons she and the business-minded tycoon had to move away from each other. She even described things between them as a bit "combative" during their relationship. Overall, Maples seemed in good spirits as she reflected on their time together and she complimented Trump on having a "positive ability to see the world, make money and date."
"Girls, when we're 20, we want to change the men we're with," she told Billy Bush and Kit Hoover. "We think love will make them a little softer." Based on her previous comments about her, it's safe to assume that Trump could have been as rigid as Maples said. In a New York Times article, a reporter who interviewed Trump said that he claimed "[Marla] was constantly surrounded by 'an entourage of dumb rednecks,'" and one of those rednecks was allegedly the mother of Maples, whom he apparently he scoffed by adopting a southern accent.
Melania Trump has her own idea of why the marriage failed
Third wife Melania Trump reportedly had her own opinion on why Marla Maples and Donald Trump got divorced. In the 2020 book, "Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship with the First Lady," a former friend of Melania's, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, details what Melania is really like, and gives several revelations that the public doesn't know. about Donald's main character.
Wolkoff wrote that Melania has her own ideas about why Maples and Donald's marriage failed compared to hers. "Unlike Marla Maples, he was not emotionally pressured by Melania," Winston Wolkoff wrote in the book. According to Wolkoff, Melania also considers herself "completely different from her other wives." Vanity Fair reported that a source claimed that Maples traveled everywhere she went for years in a wedding dress while she dated Donald, in case he wanted to get married on a whim. She is just one example of the alleged pressure Donald supposedly felt.
Maples is legally prohibited from telling her truth
There have been plenty of opportunities to reveal the details of what happened in their relationship, but Donald Trump and Marla Maples' divorce and prenuptial agreement prohibits Maples from revealing much information. So when rumors of a revealing Maples memoir surfaced, it seemed too good to be true, in light of her ironclad NDA. The book, titled "About About Time," reportedly never came to fruition because Maples couldn't get Trump to approve its publication. Maples reportedly even had a publisher, Judith Regan, ready to put the book on shelves before the denial, according to Page Six.
This was the second time Maples tried to tell her side of the story, as another book to be published in 2001, "All That Glitters Is Not Gold," never made it to the shelves, after both the publisher and Maples agreed. do not go ahead with the publication. With the possibility of some memory leading Maples to face a lawsuit (considering the NDA she signed), fans can understand why she can be hesitant or vague when asked about her ex.
