Ivana Trump Divorce Settlement: Prenups, Payout, and Custody

The Ivana Trump divorce settlement, finalized in March 1991, gave Ivana Trump $14 million in cash, the couple’s 45-room Greenwich, Connecticut mansion, an apartment at Trump Plaza in Manhattan, one month a year at Mar-a-Lago, $650,000 a year in child support, and sole custody of the couple’s three children.¹² The deal closed a fourteen-month fight that began with Ivana demanding half of a fortune she valued at $5 billion and ended with a payout shaped by four prenuptial agreements and Donald Trump’s deteriorating finances.

The Prenups That Set the Ceiling

Donald and Ivana signed a prenuptial agreement before their April 1977 wedding, drafted by Donald’s attorney Roy Cohn. The original contract entitled Ivana to $20,000 per year in the event of a split, and the lawyer who represented her at signing had been recommended by Cohn himself.³

Over the next decade the couple executed four separate marital-property agreements. The last, signed on December 24, 1987, became the controlling document in the divorce. Under its terms, Ivana was entitled to a $10 million lump sum, $350,000 a year in maintenance, and the Greenwich estate.⁴ It also carried a confidentiality clause barring Ivana from publishing any account of the marriage or Donald’s personal, financial, or business affairs without his consent, plus a provision requiring her to return gifts such as furs and cars if the marriage ended.⁵

The press widely reported the 1987 agreement as a “$25 million prenup.” The New York Times later clarified that the figure combined the $10 million lump sum with an additional $12 million that would have been paid in lieu of the Greenwich mansion if the house had been sold before the divorce. Because Ivana kept the mansion, the cash side of the deal was always going to be closer to $10 million.¹

Ivana’s Challenge and the Push for Half

Ivana filed for divorce in March 1990, weeks after columnist Liz Smith broke the story of Donald’s relationship with Marla Maples.⁶ Her attorney, Michael Kennedy, framed the initial lawsuit not as a routine divorce action but as a claim for half of Donald’s estimated $5 billion fortune, arguing that the couple had built the empire together.⁷

Her legal team attacked the 1987 postnuptial agreement as “unconscionable and fraudulent,” alleging that Donald had misled her lawyers about the true value of his holdings when she signed.⁵ Ivana had served as Executive Vice President of the Trump Organization, oversaw interior design at Trump Tower and the Grand Hyatt, ran Trump Castle in Atlantic City, and was president and CEO of the Plaza Hotel.⁸ She described the couple as “a team” who “didn’t inherit it, we made it the old-fashioned way — we earned it.”⁹

Donald’s side was led by Jay Goldberg and Stanford Lotwin. Goldberg’s public posture was theatrical; at one point he posed on the courthouse steps with a giant facsimile of a $10 million check, pressing the point that Trump had already offered the prenup number.¹⁰

The Uncontested Divorce Decree

On December 11, 1990, New York State Supreme Court Justice Phyllis Gangel-Jacob granted the divorce in an uncontested proceeding. The legal grounds were “cruel and inhuman treatment,” specifically that Donald’s public appearances with Maples had caused Ivana “anxiety and sleeplessness.”¹¹¹²

The December decree ended the marriage but did not resolve the money. Division of assets, child custody, and the validity of the prenuptial agreements were all left to be settled or tried.¹²

How Trump’s Financial Problems Shaped the Deal

By 1990 Donald’s real-estate empire was in trouble. The Wall Street Journal estimated his personal guarantees on loans exceeded $600 million, spread across the Trump Shuttle ($135 million), the Plaza Hotel ($125 million), Bear Stearns positions ($56 million), the Taj Mahal casino ($35 million), and other properties.¹³ Forbes dropped him from its list of the world’s richest people, cutting his estimated net worth from $1.7 billion to $500 million.¹⁴

When the time came to fund a settlement, banks refused Trump’s request for $10 million. He was already drawing a $375,000 monthly living allowance from his creditors.¹ The math changed Ivana’s leverage. Her half-the-fortune theory had assumed a far larger pile than existed; one account put it bluntly: “he wasn’t as rich as Ivana and Kennedy thought he was.” As a general creditor, she also faced the risk that a Trump bankruptcy would leave her with far less than the prenup’s number.²

The settlement was reached around March 20, 1991, after a face-to-face meeting at Jay Goldberg’s Park Avenue office. Goldberg said “things started off hot, and then reason overcame emotion.”¹⁵

What Ivana Got

$14 million in cash as a lump sum, with no monthly payments. The figure sat above the prenup’s $10 million cash line but well below the “$25 million” number widely reported in the press.¹
The Greenwich, Connecticut estate, a 45-room Georgian colonial on roughly six acres of a private peninsula. The Trumps had bought it in 1982 for $4 million.¹¹⁶
An apartment at Trump Plaza on East 61st Street and Third Avenue in Manhattan.²
Use of Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida for one month each year.¹
$650,000 per year in child support for the couple’s three children.¹

Divorce attorney Raoul Felder, commenting on the deal, said Ivana had received “not one cent more than she was entitled to under the agreement.”²

Custody of the Children

Ivana received sole custody of Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric, who were roughly 12, 9, and 6 at the time.¹⁷¹⁸ She later wrote that she made all decisions about schooling, activities, and allowances, saying there was “only one cook in the kitchen, which was me,” and that when each child finished college she told Donald, “Here is the finished product. Now it’s your turn.”

The Confidentiality Clause and the $25 Million Suit

The most unusual term of the deal was the confidentiality clause carried over from the 1987 agreement. It barred Ivana from publishing or causing to be published “any diary, memoir, letter, story, photograph, interview, article, essay, account or description” of her marriage to Donald without his consent.¹⁹

When Ivana published a roman à clef novel, For Love Alone, Donald claimed it violated the clause. On April 16, 1992, the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court unanimously reinstated the provision, which Justice Gangel-Jacob had struck down. The appellate panel found the clause “does not, on its face offend public policy as a prior restraint on protected speech.”¹⁹ A 5-0 appellate ruling on June 30, 1992, reaffirmed that decision and cleared Donald to sue.²⁰

Donald then filed a $25 million lawsuit in Manhattan state court, accusing Ivana of “willful, deliberate and surreptitious disclosure” of his personal and financial dealings.²¹ Goldberg said the ruling vindicated Donald’s “right to the agreement that he bargained for and for which he paid $10 million.”¹⁹ In a separate action, Donald argued that Ivana’s cohabitation with her then-partner Riccardo Mazzucchelli relieved him of $400,000 in annual alimony obligations.²⁰

The Sealed Deposition and the Assault Allegation

A 1989 deposition taken during the proceedings contained a separate and much heavier claim. In it, Ivana stated that Donald had “raped” her during an incident that year. Author Harry Hurt III reported the account in his 1993 biography Lost Tycoon, writing that the incident occurred after Trump underwent a scalp-reduction surgery and that two of Ivana’s friends corroborated the claim. Trump denied both the allegation and the surgery.²²

Before the book was published, Trump’s lawyers pressed the publisher to include a clarifying statement from Ivana. In it she confirmed she had used the word “rape” but added, “I do not want my words to be interpreted in a literal or criminal sense,” saying that “as a woman, I felt violated.” When the allegation resurfaced during the 2016 presidential campaign, Ivana issued a statement calling the story “totally without merit” and noting the comments had been made “at a time of very high tension during my divorce.”²³

In 2016, the New York Times and Gannett moved to unseal the divorce records, arguing they were relevant to Trump’s presidential candidacy. Ivana opposed the motion, submitting an affidavit saying she did not want the records “displayed for misinterpretation and amusement.” A Manhattan judge kept the records sealed.²⁴⁴

1
The New York Times. Trumps Settle; She Gets $14 Million Plus
2
The Washington Post. Trumps Settle; The Donald Claims Victory
3
Politico. Donald Trump and Roy Cohn
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New York Daily News. Court Docs From Donald and Ivana Trump’s Divorce Proceedings to Remain Sealed
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New York Daily News. Exclusive Court Docs From Ivana Trump’s Prenuptial Challenge
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Vanity Fair (Archive). The Trump Divorce
7
Los Angeles Times. Trump Divorce Lawsuit Filed
8
Fox Business. Ivana Trump, Businesswoman
9
The Morning Call. Ivana Trump Now Fashions Herself as Plaza’s Innkeeper
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The New York Times. Jay Goldberg Obituary
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The New York Times. Trumps Get Divorce; Next, Who Gets What
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Tampa Bay Times. The Trumps: The Divorce
13
Vanity Fair. Donald and Ivana Trump Divorce Prenup
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Vanity Fair (Archive). After the Gold Rush
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Baltimore Sun. At Last, Donald and Ivana Trump Officially Settle Their Divorce Deal
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South China Morning Post. Inside Donald and Ivana Trump’s Starter Mansion
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Time. Ivana Trump Excerpt
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The Hill. Trump’s Ex-Wife: I Raised the Kids
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UPI. Court Opens Way in Trump Divorce for Donald to Gag Ivana
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UPI. Trump Can Sue Ivana for Violating Gag Order
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Orlando Sentinel. Trump Says Ivana Broke Gag Clause, Files Lawsuit
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The New Yorker. Documenting Trump’s Abuse of Women
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ABC News. Donald Trump’s Wife Ivana Disavows Rape Allegation
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Politico. Donald Trump Ivana Divorce Records