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First daughter Ivanka Trump opened up about her life in a recent video interview on “The Diary of a CEO” podcast — sharing in no uncertain terms that her extended family is the foundation of her life.
Trump, 44, spoke about her mother, Ivana Trump, calling her an “incredible trailblazer” who gave her an example of “strength and resilience and glamour and determination and ambition” — and she spoke of her grandmother as well.
Ivana Trump was born Ivana Zelnickova in 1949 in the Czechoslovak city of Gottwaldov, formerly Zlin, which had just been renamed by the Communists who took over the country in 1948.
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President Donald Trump and Ivana Trump were married in 1977 and had three children together: Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric.
Partners in both love and business — with Ivana Trump playing such roles as manager of one of his Atlantic City casinos — the Trump couple were fixtures of New York’s see-and-be-seen scene before their high-profile divorce in the early 1990s.
By then, Donald Trump had met his next wife, Marla Maples.
First daughter Ivanka Trump, pictured at far right as a child, described her grandmother Marie Zelníčková, far left, as “unbelievably nurturing” and said having her at her home in Florida today is “a blessing.” (Ivanka Trump/Instagram)
“She was very herself, and she was very joyful. And she loved to dance, and she loved to play,” said Ivanka Trump, speaking of her mother.
“She showed me a lot at a time when not many women were doing what my mother was doing inside the boardroom and on the construction sites,” Trump added.
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Ivana Trump enthusiastically backed her former husband’s 2016 White House run and told the New York Post in 2016 that she was both a supporter and an adviser.
Ivanka Trump spoke about her mother as an “unbelievable role model for me for what is possible. … She taught me a lot about just bringing intention to what you do.”
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She shared that Ivana Trump influenced her own approach to parenthood, adding that she would “also say she couldn’t do it alone, and she wasn’t pretending she could.”
Ivana Trump and Ivanka Trump pose together in a photo by Mark Von Holden for Niche Media, LLC. (Mark Von Holden/WireImage)
Ivanka Trump shared her parents did a good job of keeping her and her siblings grounded.
She said that even amid her father’s high-profile life, never once did he not pick up her calls.
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“There was never a doubt in my mind that I was his top priority and that he was available to me,” she said.
Ivanka Trump grew visibly emotional at several points in the interview, pausing to compose herself as she reflected on her mother’s sudden death at home in New York City after a fall in 2022 at age 73.
Family portrait of, from left, socialite Ivana Trump, son Eric Trump, Donald Trump and daughter Ivanka Trump as they sit at a table at the Mar-a-Lago estate, Palm Beach, Florida, 1998. (Davidoff Studios/Getty Images)
She said that after her mother’s death, she spent time studying her life to better understand her. “I understand her better today than I did in some ways in her life. I see her more fully,” she said.
“She lived a good life,” Ivanka Trump added.
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She also spoke about her grandmother, Marie Zelníčková, on the podcast — pointing out that she was a fixture in her life, and now lives with her and her family in Florida.
Donald Trump Jr., Ivana Trump, Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump in New York City in October 2011. (Ben Hider/Getty Images)
While Ivanka Trump credits both her mother and father for shaping her into the person she is today, she said her “grandmother and grandfather on my mother’s side really raised us.”
She called her grandmother “unbelievably nurturing” and said having her at her home is “a blessing.”
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“She taught me a type of unconditional love and tenderness,” Trump said.
“For me and my children to have the experience [of being] there for her in just a small fraction of the way that she was there for me is such an extraordinary privilege.”
Ivanka Trump is pictured during the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup Draw at Telemundo Studios on Dec. 5, 2024, in Miami, Florida. (Brennan Asplen/Getty Images)
She added, “Food for her was very much an expression of love.”
Digital’s Kelly McGreal and Adam Sabes contributed reporting.
