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Donald Trump has owned Mar-a-Lago since 1985 when he bought it with then-wife Ivana Trump. After his tabloid divorce in 1997, the historic Palm Beach property stayed in his hands, but each of his wives, including Marla Maples and Melania Trump, brought their own personalities to the estate.
Mary C. Shanklin, author of American Castle: One Hundred Years of Mar-a-Lago, spoke exclusively with SheKnows about how each woman put their stamp on mansion built by socialite Marjorie Merriweather Post in the 1920s. Shanklin describes Donald Trump’s late first wife as a “businesswoman” much more so ” than either of his two subsequent wives after that.” She believes that Ivana was the one who understood the power behind her family very early on.
“There are these great photo spreads of her in these different ballroom gowns, draping herself all over the Mar-a-Lago furnishings and just really trying to brand her and Trump and the Trump family,” she says about Ivana’s era at the estate. Things changed very dramatically when Marla came into the picture because she was pregnant with her daughter, Tiffany, before she even married Donald Trump.
Shanklin shares how Donald Trump’s second wife really changed the atmosphere of Mar-a-Lago by focusing on her little family. “Marla Maples, out in the open, had the affair [with Donald Trump]. She became pregnant and she went down there to have her baby. She wanted to get out of the limelight of New York,” she explained. “She went down there and had the baby at this really sweet little local hospital they had.” Marla had more control over what was happening at the Florida estate because “The Donald, as he was called at the time, was still back in New York. “But she had recreated that as more of this maternal nest, this quiet place,” says Shanklin. “He wasn’t around so much at that time.”
Buy: American Castle: One Hundred Years of Mar-a-Lago ‘American Castle: One Hundred Years of Mar-a-Lago’ $23.19Once Donald Trump married his third wife, “the personality shifted a little bit more” at Mar-a-Lago. Shanklin notes, “[Melania] has been so famously in the background, but I got to tour Mar-a-Lago with the architect, who has done everything under the Trump’s ownership, and you can see more of her influence where the spa grew out of what had been the carriage house.” Melania has been more focused on the “beautiful” aspects of the property.
With Donald Trump’s legal issues raining down on his real estate empire, it is unclear what will happen with Mar-a-Lago in the future, but his three wives have all left a lasting legacy to the estate.
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