The Tragic Story Of Donald Trump's Ex-Wife Marla Maples

What started as an illicit dalliance turned into a media frenzy when Donald Trump and Marla Maples started their affair. Making headlines during Trump's nasty and expensive divorce from his then-wife Ivana Trump, Maples was thrust into an unkind spotlight. According to a Vanity Fair article at the time, there were a lot of cloak-and-dagger-type protocols Maples had to follow to keep the affair a secret — Donald even kept her on his yacht for an extended period of time. And the press didn't stop once they got married.

After Maples gave birth to daughter Tiffany Trump, she finally was able to convince Donald to walk her down the aisle. Looking absolutely stunning just two months postpartum, Maples said "I do" in 1993, but the marriage only made it to 1997. While Donald was off pursuing his strange relationship with Melania Trump (née Knauss), Maples was left to pick up the pieces of her failed marriage. What was once so shiny and bright for Maples had taken a turn for the dull and tragic. Not only that, but she wasn't able to flesh out the marriage long enough to be able to rewrite the ironclad prenup Donald had made her sign. These are just a few moving parts in a series of unfortunate moments in the sad story of Maples.

A hidden truth of Marla Maples was she always saw herself as more than just Donald Trump's mistress, but it tragically took years to convince Trump to suit up and meet her at the altar. According to Vanity Fair, when Maples and Trump welcomed daughter Tiffany Trump, Maples was certain this would be the right time to nudge Trump's hand toward marriage. However, the timing aligned with his divorce from ex-wife Ivana Trump draining Donald of money and desire to do it all over again. With Donald's conservative parents breathing down his neck about having a child out of wedlock, he caved to Maples — but not without a prenup.

In the document, Donald boasted much of the power. He was able to talk Maples down from the reported $25 million she initially wanted if they separated to a plain $1 million with no alimony. There were strict limits on Tiffany's child support and Maples was under an intense non-disclosure agreement that banned her from publishing "any diary, memoir, letter, story, photograph, interview, article, essay, account or description or depiction of any kind whatsoever, whether fictionalized or not."

For a while, Maples refused to sign the papers, but Donald held up their wedding to get her to cave. A source close to the couple said at the time that Donald threatened to halt the ceremony less than 24 hours before everyone arrived for it. They claimed, "Marla was under duress. Donald's position was: without the prenup, he wasn't going to get married." Maples signed in hopes of being able to renegotiate in five years — although the marriage ultimately didn't make it that far.

Once the divorce between Donald Trump and Marla Maples was settled, Maples was shouldered with caring for their daughter Tiffany Trump. One of the tragic details of Tiffany's life was that the child support payments she received from her father Donald paled in comparison to what her half-siblings Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Ivanka Trump were receiving. Even without the extra support, Maples was determined to do her best with what she had.

According to People, Maples and Tiffany relocated to California to escape the pressures of New York and the long shadow cast by the Trump name there. It was here that Maples was able to fully nest and become the doting mother she longed to be in her previous life as a wife. She enrolled Tiffany in classes and sports and wanted to give Tiffany the chance to "discover who she is." Whereas Maples admitted that becoming a single mother was not ideal, she was always willing to step up for her daughter to get what she needed. "Her father wasn't able to be there with day-to-day skills as a parent," Maples told People. "He loves his kids. There's no doubt. But everything was a bit of a negotiation."

Maples' strategy of allowing Tiffany the space to grow into her own seems to have worked. Tiffany appears to have a strong bond with her mother and values her upbringing, admitting, "She wanted me to have a chance to have a normal childhood. As normal as possible. I think that she did well in that."

When Marla Maples was dating Donald Trump back in the 1990s, it was a media firestorm. Wanting to protect herself from bad press as well as aggressive paparazzi, she hired publicist Chuck Jones to go to battle for her. However, their relationship quickly crumbled when it was revealed that Jones had an unsavory penchant for nicking Maples' footwear and hiding them in his office. According to the New York Post, when Jones was arrested in 1992, he had stashed 70 pairs of Maples shoes, with which he admitted to having a "sexual relationship." He eventually took a plea deal and was sentenced to probation and no contact with Maples and her daughter Tiffany Trump. However, he didn't avoid them forever.

In May 2012, Jones was once again arrested and this time sentenced to a few months in jail for sending Maples harassing emails. Sent during the spring, the emails seemed to revolve around his desire for Maples to "choke on an Easter bunny," which she thankfully did not do. Part of the terms of his sentence was for Jones to go to therapy and continue not to contact Maples or Tiffany. Luckily, as Maples continues to transform outside of her relationship with Donald Trump, she no longer needs a creepy publicist.

After moving to California with daughter Tiffany Trump, Marla Maples let the dust settle from her divorce from Donald Trump before testing the limits of the NDA clause within their prenup. According to the New York Times, as early as 2000 Maples was shopping around a memoir that was officially announced by HarperCollins titled "All That Glitters Is Not Gold." Maybe Maples herself felt it wasn't the right time, or perhaps Donald pressured her not to release it, but it ultimately never materialized. In 2002, an official statement from HarperCollins read, "The author and publisher by mutual consent have agreed not to publish the book." But that was just Maples' first attempt.

In 2016, as Donald was ramping up his first successful presidential campaign, there were rumors once again of Maples wanting to put out a tell-all. According to Page Six, this iteration was going to be titled "It's About Time" and was set to be published by Regan Arts. However, the project was scrapped due to Donald and his lawyers demanding it be overly sanitized or pulled completely. Plus, per Vanity Fair, it might have been more than just Donald doing the bullying. An inside source claimed that Donald and his daughter Ivanka Trump forced a meeting at Trump Tower where "They really double-teamed her. They got her not to write the book." It just goes to show there's plenty we don't know about Ivanka.

When the world shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic, the internet became a hive for wild theories and sourdough recipes. Unfortunately for Marla Maples, she sought out the former. Maples shared an Instagram story from the often eyebrow-raising Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that pushed the debunked idea that the COVID-19 vaccines would have microchips in them (via the Daily Beast). "Education is key ... Ask questions ... Dig deeper ...," Maples wrote on the reposted gram. But this wasn't the only faulty theory Maples seemed to have fallen for around this time.

As a wellness influencer, Maples also touted her fair share of alternative ways to stay healthy during the pandemic. While there's nothing wrong with encouraging prayer, meditation, or hand washing (although, she recommended doing so without any soap), none of the methods she pedaled were backed by science to halt a virus. Ultimately, most of the posts wound up circling back to the unfounded theory that Bill Gates was trying to put tracking devices in people.

Luckily, Maples has swung back into the more palatable and understandable lane of TedTalks about "Faith Over Fear" and how doing aerial acrobatics has kept her looking youthful, some theories that feel a little nicer to get behind.