Ivana Trump, who has died at age 73, reportedly after a fall, was a businesswoman and socialite who became the New York conversation of the 1980s alongside Donald Trump; Often portrayed as a gold digger, she was in fact not a mere woman trophy, working alongside her husband while building her empire, helping to develop the Trump Tower and the Trump Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City.
There was more than a touch of smoke and mirrors about her life, but when she was interviewed in 1997 by Charles Laurence of the Telegraph, she observed, “There’s something surprisingly uncomfortable about Ivana Trump, but there’s also something charming about it. , naive and honest. As they say in America, at least you know where it comes from. “
Ivana Marie Zelnickova was born on February 20, 1949 in Gottwaldov (now known as Zlin), a small industrial town in Moravia, Czechoslovakia. Her father, Milos Zelnicek, was an electrical engineer (and reportedly a secret service spy), while her mother, Marie Zelnickova, a Francova bachelor, was a telephone operator.