Ivana Trump, a longtime businesswoman and ex-wife of former President Donald Trump, will be mourned on Wednesday in New York.
Mourners, including the former president, will gather at the San Vicente Ferrer Roman Catholic Church to remember the prominent socialite. Her children and her partners, Donald Trump Jr. and his fiancee, Kimberly Guilfoyle; Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner; and Eric and Lara Trump will also be there, a person familiar with the matter told CNN.
It was not immediately clear whether former first lady Melania Trump or the former president’s other children, Tiffany and Barron, planned to attend.
Ivana Trump died at age 73 from “blunt impact injuries” to the torso, authorities said.
Raised in communist Czechoslovakia, Ivana Trump partnered with Donald Trump on some of his most high-profile real estate projects. The two divorced in 1992 following her tabloid affair with Marla Maples, Trump’s second wife and mother of her daughter, Tiffany.
When the couple finally settled, Ivana Trump walked away with $14 million, plus other perks like a huge mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut. She married and divorced two more times while maintaining a globetrotting, jet-setting lifestyle.
She once cited her “freedom” and her “perfect life” as reasons for turning down an offer to serve as ambassador to her native Czech Republic.
“I was just offered to be the American ambassador to the Czech Republic, and Donald told me. He said, ‘Ivana, if you want it, I’ll give it to you,'” Trump told “CBS Sunday Morning” in 2017. “But I I like my freedom. I like to do what I want to do, go where I want to go with whoever I want to go. And I can afford my lifestyle.”
“Okay, why would I go and say goodbye to Miami in the winter, goodbye to Saint-Tropez in the summer, and goodbye to spring and fall in New York?” She continued. “I have a perfect life.”
The former president announced his ex-wife’s death on Truth Social, remembering her in one post as “a wonderful, beautiful, amazing woman who led a great and inspiring life.”
“Her pride and joy were her three children, Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric. She was as proud of them as we all were of her. Rest in peace Ivana!” the post said.
Her children also paid public tribute, with Ivanka Trump tweeting that her late mother “was brilliant, charming, passionate and wickedly funny,” adding, “She lived life to the fullest, never missing a chance to laugh and dance.” We will miss her forever and keep the memory of her alive in our hearts forever.”
Eric Trump wrote in part on Instagram that his mother was “a force in business, a world-class athlete, a radiant beauty, and a loving mother and friend.”
Zach Erdem, a New York restaurant owner and longtime friend, told CNN he was glad to have “so many memories” with her. “All she wanted is, like everyone else, to live her life in peace and be themselves,” he said.
Ivana Trump, Erdem added, “was just a peaceful woman.”