Trump has been married 3 times - here's what we know about his prenups

Ellen Cranley,Ellen Cranley

Apr 20, 2019, 18:55 IST

Trump has been married 3 times - here's what we know about his prenups

President Donald Trump has been married three times.
After two of those marriages ended in divorce, the details of Trump's prenuptial agreements became public.
The agreements encompass piles of money, houses, and apartments that were modified based on Trump's expanding families and wealth.
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President Donald Trump frequently touts his career spent making billions of dollars in real-estate deals, but he has a well-documented track record of cutting deals with his wives as well.

With three marriages and two divorces under his belt, Trump is no stranger to prenuptial agreements, which lay out what each spouse will gain or lose in a divorce.

"It's a hard, painful, ugly tool," Trump said after his third marriage. "Believe me, there's nothing fun about it. But there comes a time when you have to say, 'Darling, I think you're magnificent, and I care for you deeply, but if things don't work out, this is what you're going to get.'"

These contracts can include money, houses, or anything a future spouse deems valuable enough to protect. They can also be amended over the course of a marriage to match a spouse's growing wealth or growing family, and are often private until the terms shake out in a divorce settlement.

Here's everything we know about Trump's prenups:

After meeting at a popular uptown watering hole for New York City's singles, Donald Trump and model Ivana Zelnicek were married April 7, 1977.

Over the course of their relationship, the couple had four prenups that were adjusted as their family and wealth grew.

After the marriage lasted over three kids and 13 years, the couple filed for divorce on December 11, 1990. It was reported that the last of the couple's four prenuptial agreements dictated the final divorce deal.

Under the final agreement, Ivana was awarded $25 million plus the couple's Greenwich mansion, or an additional $22 million if the mansion was sold before the divorce was finalized.

Donald was also ordered to pay about $650,000 annually in child support for the couple's three children — similar to what Mrs. Trump agreed to in a prenuptial agreement.

The final deal was reached after months of negotiations intended to ensure Ivana would receive the money from Donald, who was reportedly deep in debt from real estate deals and could not obtain the money through bank loans.

Trump then married actress Marla Maples, who was at the center of the drama in his first divorce, in 1993, just after the birth of their daughter Tiffany.

In 1997, the couple announced their plans to divorce. The decision came just before a four-year wedding anniversary specified in their prenup that would have increased Maples' possible settlement from its original range of $1 million to $5 million.

After they settled in 1999 on Trump handing over just $2 million, Maples said the prenuptial agreement "had been placed before me just five days before our 1993 wedding."

Though she accepted it, Maples made no secret of her dissatisfaction with the settlement, saying she walked away with the terms of the original agreement after two years of fighting, giving up "verbal commitments [Trump] made to me during our 12-year relationship."

Donald's third marriage was to Slovenian Melania Knauss on January 2, 2005.

Though the terms of their prenuptial agreement were not ever made public, gossip columnist Liz Smith said Trump was pleased, saying, "The beautiful thing is that she agrees with it. She knows I have to have that."

Speculation over the details of the agreement came into the spotlight when the two moved into the White House after Trump was elected, which some say could factor into settlement discussions upon a potential break-up of their marriage.

Melania and Donald have weathered a storm of scrutiny under the public eye, a US election, and numerous sexual harassment allegations during their 13-year marriage and appear to be the same as ever, so the details of their prenup are safe for now.

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