Ivana Trump, first wife of former president, dies at 73

Ivana Trump, a former Palm Beach resident and first wife of ex-president Donald Trump, died Thursday at her New York apartment of injuries sustained after falling down the stairs. She was 73 years old.

Friends say she had recently been suffering hip pain so severe that she could not walk unassisted.

The medical examiner's report said she died of "blunt force injuries" to her torso and ruled the death accidental.

Born Feb. 20, 1949 in the Communist Czechoslovakia town of Gottwaldov, she was the daughter of Marie (nee Francova) Zelníčova and the late Milos Zelníčova.

Her father was an electrical engineer; her mother was a telephone operator.

By the time she entered Charles University in Prague — where she would earn both bachelor's and master's degrees in physical education — she was an accomplished athlete who was especially skilled in skiing, where she competed on the national level.

In 1971, after marrying the Austrian ski instructor Alfred Winklmayr — ostensibly, her biographers say, to obtain the Austrian  citizenship which would allow her to leave Communist Czechoslovakia without being considered a defector — and moved to Canada. The couple divorced in 1973.

In 1976, she was still living in Montreal and working as a model when she met Donald Trump at a party in New York celebrating the Winter Olympics.

She would later tell Women's Wear Daily that she was immediately drawn to his “incredible street smarts, energy and business instincts."

The couple wed in April 1977 and became parents on New Year's Eve with the birth of Donald Jr. Ivanka would follow in October 1981 and Eric in January 1984.

The steel-willed Ivana became CEO of Trump’s hotel and casino operations; served as executive vice president of the Trump Organization; as president of the Trump Castle Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City; and as president/CEO of the landmark Plaza Hotel.

"I loved it, but there were many headaches," she told a New York newspaper. "I remember when all the carpeting was redone. We went to the finest workshops in India, and the carpet for the Palm Court was hand-loomed in one piece. A modern miracle, except it was so big and inflexible, they couldn't load it on any cargo ship. So, we had to get a huge 747, load it through the front, and bring it to New York. Here it was put on a flatbed, and we had to dismantle all the doors on the 58th Street side, take down the chandeliers so they wouldn't break, and install it — still in one piece!"

She helped oversee the construction of the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City and was pivotal in the interior design of Trump Tower, bringing in high-end merchants such as Gucci and Martha Phillips of Palm Beach, the legendary retailer of women's couture.

Andrew Burnstine, whose mother, Lynn Phillips Manulis, Martha's daughter/successor, ran the Manhattan premiere boutique Martha’s, recalled meeting Ivana and Donald Trump at The Breakers in the early 1980s. Ivana told her husband, who was courting luxury retailers for his new tower, that Martha was a perfect fit.

“The Martha boutiques at Trump Tower had not only the sophistication and elegance of Martha itself, but also the eye of ... Ivana herself,” Burnstine said.

She also was a fashion icon and style setter, favoring designers such as Carolina Herrera, Arnold Scassi, Gianni Versace and Palm Beach/New York-based furrier Dennis Basso.

“She was a client who became a close and very dear friend," Basso said Thursday. "I know her differently than a lot of people. I know her as the quintessential, perfect, strict mother. She ran a tight European household. Manners were important. Homework was important. Everything was important,” Basso said. “A lot of the world was unaware that behind all of the glamour and the glitz of the ’80s and the ’90s, there was this part of her.

''Besides being a shrewd businesswoman and entrepreneur, she was really a frontrunner with the women’s lib [movement]. She believed in equal rights for women and standing on her own. She wasn’t afraid to give her opinion and she wasn’t afraid to be in a man’s world when it came to business."

The couple split in 1992 after 15 years of marriage and millions of photographs.

Harry Benson was one of those photographers.

"[Wife] Gigi [Benson] and I were saddened to hear the news today that Ivana Trump had passed away unexpectedly at the age of 73," Benson posted on his Instagram page. "The vivacious first wife of the former president was always outgoing and friendly when we happened to meet in passing.

"I photographed the couple many times during their marriage, but I especially like my 1992 photograph taken in their New York bedroom."

But Ivana did not go away quietly; in fact, she did not go away at all. Instead, she built her own empire. She created brands in her own image, everything from perfume to earrings to table linens, and sold them on the television shopping channels. She wrote books. She appeared in films. Several television shows were developed for her.

And, she gave marriage another shot. Two shots, actually, and both to younger men.

She married her third husband, Riccardo Mazzucchelli, in 1995, and divorced him 1997. In 2008, she married actor Rossano Rubicondi in a $3 million wedding at The Mar-a-Lago Club. They divorced a year later.

She continued to use the Trump name through both marriages and divorces.

In addition to her mother, Mrs. Trump is survived by her sons, Donald Jr. and Eric; her daughter, Ivanka Kushner; and 10 grandchildren.

Funeral arrangements for Mrs. Trump are pending.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Mrs. Trump was found at foot of stairs; friend says hip pain crippled her