Empires of New York: Ivana Trump got cosmetic surgery to impress Donald when he started dating Marla Maples
In the late seventies, New York symbolized everything that had gone wrong in America as it was mired in deep economic decline. Crime was on the rise, the city was bankrupt, corrupt, and dirty; but five juggernauts – Donald Trump, Ivan Boesky, Leona Helmsley, John Gotti, and Rudy Giuliani – turned the ensuing chaos into opportunity and began their quest for power and fame with an aggressiveness the world had never seen. By 1983, the Big Apple was back in action. Wall Street was on the uptick as the grit, greed, and glory of the times fueled the meteoric ascent of the five would-be titans. CNBC's 'Empires of New York' chronicles their roller-coaster journeys in six eyebrow-raising episodes.
The Trump brand
In the late 1980s, Trump was buying real estate everywhere and seemed to own everything. Banks were confident in his personal brand and didn't think twice before handing out massive loans to fund his real estate endeavors. Furthermore, the young New York businessman had developed an uncanny ability to use the press to his advantage - be it positive or negative publicity. Entering the nineties, Trump had already become a national celebrity and was making unprecedented, bold moves in the property business.
Trump's purchase of The Plaza hotel for $400 million was "simply a trophy purchase," Jack O'Donnell, former VP at Trump Plaza Casino, told producers.
Enter Ivana Trump
"The first thing that he did was announce to the world that he was making Ivana Trump the President of the Plaza hotel, and that he was going to pay her in dresses. That she could have as many dresses as she wanted," Barbara Res, Former VP at The Trump Organization, recalled. Trump had famously said putting his wife at the Plaza hotel was "the greatest toy" he could gift her.
Contrary to what many expected, Ivana soon became a character in her own right. She was smart, beautiful, and held a respectable place in Trump's world, despite his overshadowing personality. "People forget what a big figure Ivana Trump was in the eighties. We did as many pieces on Ivana as we did on The Donald," Vanity Fair Author Tina Brown said. "Of course, Ivana and he, together, were the ultimate glitzy duo who were out every night and who you could not miss."
Ivana worshipped her husband, in many ways, and many felt she would always do whatever he asked her to do. However, the duo shared a business relationship at the same time. O'Donnell remembered having screaming matches with the future president, and admitted that Ivana would have them too. "She was not a pushover. And anybody that suggests that she was, just didn't know really how smart and how tough Ivana Trump was," he told producers.
During a candid interview at the time, Ivana admitted that she wouldn't support her husband if he would be "running around and fooling around. That I couldn't live with." Over time, however, those close to the real estate mogul noticed a shift in his relationship with the former model. O'Donnell noted how Trump had started "jokingly" putting her down in front of the press, something he hadn't done before. On the other hand, Res said Trump was always boasting about how beautiful women were throwing themselves at him, while still married to Ivana.
Enter Marla Maples
"Trump had spent his entire life believing he could get away with anything," Tony Schwartz, co-author of Trump's bestseller 'Art of the Deal', told producers. "As I was writing the Art of the Deal, it wasn't clear to me that he was simultaneously carrying on an affair," he added, referring to the stunning Marla Maples.
Former publisher Joni Evans recounted an episode when she was flying to a conference with Trump on his "glamorous" plane during his book tour. "Just as we land and we are getting our things together, a door opens, a door to a bedroom or something," Evans said, "All along, a stowaway, Marla Maples comes out. She'd been on the plane with us the entire time. It was such a scandal, you cannot imagine. Everyone's mouth dropped."
Marla was a fun-loving, young, "let's have a party" kind of woman, according to O'Donnell -- a polar opposite of Trump's wife Ivana. On top of that, she was an aspiring model and had recently won Miss Georgia and Miss Hawaii. The Donald was ready to move on. Eventually, word started getting around that Trump was dating a younger woman. Ivana didn't like it, but instead of arguing with her husband, she flew to California to get some cosmetic enhancements to impress him, according to former People magazine reporter Sue Carswell.
Trump didn't like what Ivana had done to herself, with Evans saying he "disdained" what she was doing. "He was never going back to her," she noted.
The media blow-up occurred shortly after, and the New York honcho was overwhelmed by all the attention to his personal affairs. But at the same time, he loved it. He actually believed in "all publicity is good publicity" and found a way to make it work to his advantage - funneling the spotlight right into his next big endeavor: the Trump Taj Mahal.
To find out more, we recommend you to watch Episode 5 of CNBC's Empires of New York on Sunday, 12/20/20, at 8 pm ET.