All Of The Trump Family Members Who Have Been Divorced
Donald Trump has been making headlines for decades, as he's gone from a New York real estate developer to a reality TV celebrity on "The Apprentice" to president of the United States. Trump also has set a number of records since becoming president. He's the first president, former or current, to have a mugshot, which he got during his arrest for felony charges of trying to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.
Not every record he holds is quite so dramatic. When he was sworn in as president in 2021 at the age of 70, he was the oldest person at the time to ever be president — of course, President Joe Biden has since broken that record. Trump is also the only president who has ever been divorced twice and married three times — his third wife, Melania Trump, became the First Lady beside him in the White House. The first and only other divorced and remarried president was Ronald Reagan.
While Donald's divorces may have been the most high-profile splits in his family, he's definitely not the only Trump to end a marriage. Here are all the Trump family members who have gotten divorced.
Donald Trump twice started dating his next wife while finalizing his divorce
Donald Trump has been married to Melania Trump since 2005, but he was married twice before. His first marriage to model Ivana Trump in 1977 gave him three of his five kids — Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric — and the couple was very much a part of New York's social scene throughout the 1980s. But their marriage devolved into a very public and very messy split with Donald and Ivana's divorce finalized in 1992. In the divorce, Ivana got $14 million and two luxury properties, including a Trump Plaza apartment, and $650,000 a year for their three kids.
A large part of the reason for the marriage breaking down was the arrival of the woman who would become Donald's second wife — Marla Maples. Marla and Donald had an affair in the early 1990s while he was married to Ivana, and they got married in 1993 a couple of months after the birth of their daughter Tiffany Trump. But less than four years after tying the knot, Donald and Marla were separated, and their divorce was official by 1999. With their prenuptial agreement, Marla got much less than Ivana — $1 million in cash and $1 million to buy a house with $100,000 a year for child support until Tiffany turned 21. In 1998, as the divorce between Marla and Donald was being finalized, Donald started dating model Melania Knauss, who would become his third wife. They now have a son, Barron Trump.
Vanessa Trump filed for divorce while her father-in-law was president
Vanessa Trump and Donald Trump Jr. first met after Donald Trump Sr. introduced them at a fashion show in 2003. Two years later, they got married at Mar-a-Lago, and they have three sons and two daughters together. But things fell apart by March 2018, and Vanessa filed for divorce. Their marriage had reportedly been troubled for some time with one potential problem including Donald Jr.'s reported affair with Aubrey O'Day in 2011 and 2012. In the same month that Vanessa filed for divorce, a source close to the couple told Page Six that, "the couple had hoped to stay together during the president's time in office, but it is getting harder to resolve their issues. He's never there."
The divorce had been uncontested originally, but that changed to contested, likely over financial issues tied up with the split that couldn't easily be resolved. They first showed up in court in July 2018 to sort things out with the divorce; this was just a couple of months after Donald Jr. started dating Kimberly Guilfoyle. They got things sorted out by early 2019 with their judge commending them for being able to sort things out amicably.
For Vanessa's part, she also moved on after the split. In the book "Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service," she is alleged to have started dating a Secret Service agent shortly after filing for divorce from Donald Jr., according to The Guardian.
Maryanne Trump had a quiet divorce in 1980
Donald Trump is one of five children born to Frederick Trump Sr. and Mary Anne Trump, and the eldest of the five was Maryanne Trump. Maryanne has stayed out of the spotlight, particularly compared to her younger brother. She even told New York magazine that, "I knew better even as a child than to even attempt to compete with Donald. I wouldn't have been able to win." This didn't stop Maryanne from pursuing an impressive career as a lawyer and a judge.
Maryanne married David Desmond in 1960, and they had a son together. The couple divorced in 1980, and in 1982, she remarried lawyer John Barry. At the time of her marriage to Barry, she was First Assistant United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey in Newark. The next year, President Ronald Reagan appointed her as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit; she was later promoted by President Bill Clinton.
Barry passed away in April 2000, and Maryanne retired as a judge in 2019 amidst an investigation into tax fraud connected to the Trump family in the 1990s, per The New York Times.
Freddy Trump's drinking contributed to his divorce
Frederick "Freddy" Trump Jr. was the oldest son and second oldest child of Fred Trump Sr. and Mary Trump. He met Linda Lee Clapp while on vacation in the Bahamas in 1958, and in 1961, Linda called Freddy to see if he knew of any apartments in Queens near Idlewild Airport (now John F. Kennedy International Airport), as she'd gotten a job as a flight attendant. The two started dating. Freddy proposed in 1961, and they were married by 1962.
The couple had two children together — Frederick III Trump and Mary Trump. Freddy was pressured by his family to take over the family business, but he was passionate about flying. He got his pilot's license and started working for TWA a few years after they got married.
As the years went on, Freddy started drinking more, and it was because of his drinking that Linda ended up filing for a divorce that was finalized in 1970, per The Seattle Times. In 1981, Freddy died of a heart attack brought on by years of alcohol abuse. Fred Trump Sr. allegedly blamed Linda for Freddy's drinking, according to The New York Times, and he cut Linda and Freddy's kids out of his will.
Robert Trump's first marriage lasted 25 years
Robert Stewart Trump was the youngest child of Fred Trump Sr. and Mary Anne Trump. He met his wife Blaine Beard at a Christie's fundraiser in the 1980s, and she became Blaine Trump in 1984. Blaine and Robert were popular fixtures in the Manhattan social and philanthropic scene, often out with Donald and Ivana Trump in the 1980s. While they were married, Robert adopted Blaine's son Christopher, whom she'd had with her first husband Peter Retchin; the couple didn't have any of their own children together.
The two separated after 25 years of marriage with Robert facing allegations of having cheated on Blaine with Ann Marie Pallan, his secretary at the Trump Organization. Robert continued seeing Ann Marie, and they got married in 2020. Robert passed away later that year.
Blaine now lives with her partner Steve Simon; they have houses in both Miami and New York. She has seemingly dropped the Trump name. A recent invitation to a charity gala of which she's a co-chair noted her as just Blaine with no surname included, according to Page Six. Also, she is listed as Blaine Beard on the charity's website.