What Donald Trump’s exes have said about marriage with him — and their relationships after divorce

LEAVE A COMMENT It has been 10 years since the infamous Access Hollywood tape leaked, on October 7, 2016, thus (more widely) exposing Donald Trump's tumultuous relationship with women.

Before the 2006 audio was leaked however, the president long had a playboy image; in fact, Wayne Barrett wrote in his 1991 book Trump, The Greatest Show on Earth: The Deals, The Downfall, The Reinvention, that he tried to get Playboy to publish a spread called "The Girls of Trump" featuring his staffers. "He even tried to get Playboy to do a spread called 'The Girls of Trump,' wooing his most shapely staffers, including a former beauty queen secretary, into posing for the magazine with a sliding scale of offers on everything from full nude to breast to 'wet-lip' shots," he wrote.

The author continued: "It was all part of the rakish ethos of phony glamour that he consciously fostered, even to the extent of concealing from public view a very efficient secretary with a pimplish facial condition."

The former real estate developer has been married three times, with little (or no) time between each marriage. Following his first two divorces, both Ivana Trump and Marla Maples have had mixed messaging about their former husband, with the former accusing him of marital rape before recanting the allegation, and the latter saying being with him was "the emptiest, darkest place to be."

Though his three marriages (he has been married to Melania Trump since 2005 are his most notable, public relationships, Trump has also become known for the at least 26 sexual assault allegations against him, most notably from E. Jean Carroll; in 2023, a federal jury found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation against the advice columnist.

Here is what the women previously in Trump's life have said about him, from his first wife to Stormy Daniels.

Ivana (née Ivana Zelníčková) and Trump were married from 1977 to 1990, and they welcomed three children, Donald Jr., Ivanka (whose actual name is Ivana Marie), and Eric Trump. Their marriage ended after his affair with his second wife, Marla Maples. According to a 1990 Vanity Fair story about the headline-making divorce, Don Jr., then 12, is said to have told his father: "How can you say you love us? You don't love us! You don't even love yourself. You just love your money."

"The children are all wrecks," Ivana told famed gossip columnist Liz Smith. "I don't know how Donald can say they are great and fine. 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?'"

In a 1990 deposition during their divorce, Ivana said as part of a sworn statement that after Trump had a painful scalp reduction surgery, in a rage, he pushed her to the floor, pulled out chunks of her hair, and raped her. The scene was depicted in the Trump biopic The Apprentice.

She later amended her account publicly. "During a deposition given by me in connection with my matrimonial case, I stated that my husband had raped me," she said in a 1993 statement. "[O]n one occasion during 1989, Mr. Trump and I had marital relations in which he behaved very differently toward me than he had during our marriage. As a woman, I felt violated, as the love and tenderness, which he normally exhibited towards me, was absent. I referred to this as a 'rape,' but I do not want my words to be interpreted in a literal or criminal sense."

In 2015, when the allegations reemerged during Trump's first presidential campaign, she maintained: "I have recently read some comments attributed to me from nearly 30 years ago at a time of very high tension during my divorce from Donald. The story is totally without merit. Donald and I are the best of friends and together have raised 3 children that we love and are very proud of."

Her mixed messaging has continued in the years since, often expressing both support and pity for him. Appearing on a 2020 episode of the U.K. talk show Loose Women, she praised him as "pro everything I believe in. He is Republican and so am I. He's achieved so much, especially with immigration."

She also said during a 2017 Good Morning America interview that she had a direct line to the White house, but refrained from using it because of Melania. "I don't want to cause any kind of jealousy or something like that, because I'm basically first Trump wife. Okay? I'm first lady," she said.

"I think he's missing a little bit of his old life," she also admitted in a 2017 appearance on The Ray D'Arcy Show. "You know he was in Trump Tower, and he would go to Mar-a-Lago, he would go to play golf in Westchester, and things like that. Now from 8 o'clock in the morning to midnight, he's working, working, working … I don't envy him, I think he must be freaking exhausted."

Marla and Trump met in 1984, when she was 21 and he was 38, and began a relationship while he was married to Ivana. In October 1993, they welcomed daughter Tiffany Trump, and they tied the knot in December 1993, with O.J. Simpson and Jeffrey Epstein in attendance.

They separated in May 1997 and divorced in June 1999, and though Marla is bound to confidentiality regarding their marriage under the terms of their prenuptial agreement and divorce settlement, she has broached the topic occasionally. Prior to Trump being elected in 2016, Marla told The Daily Beast she has "always been more liberal" than her ex-husband. "I believe in gay and lesbian rights and I believe everyone on this planet has a right to choice. So, I just don't feel it's productive for me to go judging another person's choices. I think it's important for all of us to speak about what is important for us. I think — I even saw them advising Hillary [Clinton] today that she shouldn't go out attacking — like some of the other candidates did — that she should really stick with her own strengths, and I kind of take that to heart."

"There's just issues that I was born caring about that may be a little different than what we're seeing take — how can I say that?" she continued. "We're seeing issues come to the forefront, for sure. I just believe we have to have positive dialogue and understanding."

In December 2025, The Wall Street Journal reported that Marla warned Trump about late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, a longtime friend of Trump. She warned her husband that something was "off" with Epstein, reportedly telling Mar-a-Lago employees that there was something "wrong," with him, and expressed concern over the influence he had over her then-husband. Staff said that Marla did not want Epstein to spend time with her or Trump, and that she informed Timothy McDaniel, who ran security at Trump's properties in Florida, about her reservations.

Trump has been married to Melania since 2005, though multiple women have alleged to have had relationships with, or been sexually harassed by, Trump during his relationship with his first wife, among them Stormy Daniels, Karen McDougal, People writer Natasha Stoynoff, Summer Zervos, and various Miss USA and Miss Universe contestants (Trump owned the Miss Universe Organization).

Stormy has alleged for years that she and Trump had a sexual encounter in Nevada in 2006. Though he has always denied the counter, in 2024, he was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, stemming from a $130,000 hush-money payment made to the adult film actor by his lawyer Michael Cohen.

Testifying under oath, Stormy recalled Trump telling her before they had sex: "You remind me of my daughter because she is smart and blonde and beautiful."

Former Playboy model Karen, claimed she had a 10-month affair with Trump during his marriage to Melania. In August 2016, American Media, Inc. (AMI) — publisher of the National Enquirer — paid her $150,000 for exclusive rights to her story under a practice known as "catch and kill," suppressing publication about her story during the 2016 presidential campaign.

In 2016, People writer Natasha alleged that Trump pushed her against a wall and "shoved" his tongue "down her throat" when she went to Mar-a-Lago to interview him and Melania, who was pregnant at the time. "Trump is much bigger — a looming figure — and he was fast, taking me by surprise and throwing me off balance. I was stunned. And I was grateful when Trump's longtime butler burst into the room a minute later, as I tried to unpin myself," she wrote.

In 2016, former The Apprentice contestant Summer publicly claimed Trump very aggressively" kissed her, groped her breasts, and began "thrusting" himself at her during a meeting at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles, and in 2017, she filed a defamation lawsuit, which was abruptly withdrawn weeks before Trump was scheduled to be deposed under oath.

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