Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner had temporarily split in 2008 because of religious differences, claims book
Ivanka Trump serves as a senior adviser to President Trump on women's issues while her husband Jared Kushner advises his father-in-law in strategic planning. Their respective appointments to the White House drew ire from Trump's critics, many of whom accused the president of nepotism.
And while the first daughter shares a strong bond with her partner, things were not so picture-perfect when they began seeing each other, Express reports.
After a year of dating, the pair broke up in 2008. The split was allegedly due to Jared’s parents, Charlie and Seryl Kushner, who had a problem with the match.
A brand new book 'Kushner Inc' has claimed Jared's parents did not approve of the fact that Ivanka was not Jewish. In fact, they were offended that their son was considering marrying outside the faith.
“The idea was particularly offensive to Seryl, who had raised the children," wrote author Vicky Ward. “They were her world, and her world was the closed conservative Jewish culture she had grown up in."
“Charlie and Seryl refused to even meet Ivanka, although Hammer repeatedly talked to Charlie about it," he added.
“You’re the closest people to your children of anybody that I know," Charlie's lawyer and friend Alan Hammer reportedly told him. “So what are you going to do Charlie? Are you going to go sit shiva for your favorite child?”
According to the Jewish faith, Shiva is a period of seven days of formal mourning for the departed. The Kushners followed a strict Modern Orthodox Jewish tradition, and Jared was expected to marry someone who was raised in a similar fashion.
"The Kushners hoped that Jared would marry a Jewish woman," according to a New Yorker article published in 2016. "Donald Trump is Presbyterian, and Ivanka — who in the documentary “Born Rich” appears wearing a necklace with a silver cross — was not what they’d had in mind."
However, Ivanka and Jared reunited after being apart for just three months. Interestingly, it was Rupert Murdoch’s then-wife Wendi Deng Murdoch who played a vital role in their reconciliation.
While heading up The New York Observer, Jared reportedly "hung out" a lot with the American media mogul. After hearing about their split, Wendi reportedly invited them both on a boating holiday - not telling either the other would be there.
The pair eventually reunited and Jared proposed to Ivanka with a 5-carat diamond ring. The latter converted to Judaism before tying the knot in 2009.