The Truth About Donald Trump's Ex-Wife, Marla Maples
When it comes to Donald Trump's former wives, Ivana Trump is the one who gets the most attention. Much less is known about the woman he married after he and Ivana split up, Marla Maples.
Maples and Trump reportedly became involved while he was still married to Ivana. The relationship between the two sent the media into a frenzy, with the press blaming her for breaking up Trump's marriage. Maples escaped the press by going to Guatemala with the Peace Corps for a time. "It was awful," she later told People. "They wouldn't leave my family alone. I wanted to fix everything. I like to fix things for people and suddenly here's all these stories out. I couldn't keep up."
Ivana eventually won a multi-million dollar divorce settlement (per The New York Times), and Trump was a single man again, but he didn't immediately marry Marples after his divorce was finalized in 1991. They saw each other off and on, finally tying the knot in 1993, two months after their only child, Tiffany Trump, was born.
Marla Maples raised her daughter as a single mom
Trump's marriage to Maples did not last long. He later admitted that he wasn't exactly thrilled when Maples told him she was pregnant. "Honestly, I'm glad it happened," he told Howard Stern in 2004 (via Newsweek). "I have a great little daughter, Tiffany. But, you know at the time it was like, 'Excuse me, what happened?' And then I said, 'Well, what are we going to do about this?' She [Maples] said, "Are you serious? It's the most beautiful day of our lives.' I said, 'Oh, great.'"
Trump's early ambivalence did not bode well for their future relationship. The two divorced in 1999, and Maples moved from New York to California with Tiffany. "She moved us out of New York to get out of the spotlight and let me grow up and find my own identity versus being in the shadow of a name or growing up very young with all that pressure," Tiffany told People. "So, she wanted me to have a chance to have a normal childhood. As normal as possible. I think that she did well in that."
What is Marla Maples up to today?
Before her relationship with Trump thrust her into the limelight, Maples was a budding actress with a handful of roles under her belt (per IMDb). She has continued to act sporadically over the years, with roles in films and shows like Clueless, Loving Annabelle, Liv and Maddie, and The Righteous Gemstones. Per Bustle, other endeavors include a podcast, a 2013 album called The Endless, and a stint on Dancing with the Stars in 2016.
When it comes to her famous ex-husband, Maples doesn't have much to say. "I believe silence was really important for a while," she said on the podcast Journeys of Faith with Paula Faris in 2018 (via Newsweek). "To allow people to know that I'm not out there trying to get publicity because my ex-husband is president."
A source told Vanity Fair that Maples did consider speaking out during Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, though, and had even spoken to a publisher, but was reportedly talked out of it by Trump and his daughter, Ivanka. "They really double-teamed her," said the source. "They got her not to write the book."