Tragic new details are emerging in the death of Ivana Trump, who was found dead in her Manhattan townhouse on Thursday after suffering an apparent fatal fall down her opulent winding staircase.
The death of Donald Trump‘s first wife, the mother of his eldest children, at age 73 sent shockwaves through the family, with son Eric Trump saying as he left Ivana’s townhouse that it was ‘a very sad day, a very sad day.’
Ivana had grown increasingly frail during more than two years of isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic, friends say, and the socialite’s close confidante Nikki Haskell says she had feared an accident on the stairs.
‘I have to tell you something — that has always been my fear. She had one of those really beautiful staircases that was impossible to walk down,’ Haskell told Extra on Friday.
‘Narrow in the inside and wider as it got out. I was always afraid that she would fall. I don’t know what happened, but it’s not hard for me to believe that’s what happened — treacherous stairs,’ added Haskell.
New York’s medical examiner earlier reported that Ivana died of injuries suffered in an accidental fall, and police sources say that she was discovered near the bottom of a staircase in her Upper East Side home.
Ivana Trump is seen in 2011 on the winding staircase of her Manhattan townhouse. She died on Thursday after an accidental fall, and was found near the bottom of the stairs
Photos have emerged showing parts of the home’s winding staircase, which is covered in thick carpeting
The winding staircase took twists and turns through the seven-story townhouse
Meanwhile, photos have emerged showing parts of the seven-story home’s winding staircase, which is covered in thick carpeting.
In a tragic twist of fate, Ivana was preparing to leave for a St. Tropez getaway on Friday — her first trip since the pandemic descended in March 2020.
‘The past couple of years, she became very reclusive… She had a big townhouse and she was really afraid of getting the virus, much more so than anybody I know,’ said Haskell.
‘She didn’t want to go anywhere, she didn’t want to travel… She took it very, very seriously. She was afraid of getting sick.’
On her walks and salon visits on the Upper East Side, Ivana was often seen being assisted by a home health aide in recent months.
She was last seen alive on Wednesday evening, when she ventured out to her favorite neighborhood restaurant, just a few doors down from her home.
Around 6pm, Trump and her health aide stopped in Alesti on East 64th Street, where the socialite ordered soup to be delivered to her home, the New York Post reported.
‘She did not come in,’ restaurant owner Paolo Alavian told the outlet. ‘I bumped into her outside. I said, ‘Señora, how are you? Good?’ She said, ‘I just went for my walk,’ and we chat couple of minutes as a common thing we always [do].’
Ivana’s close confidante Nikki Haskell (with her in 2004 above) says she had feared an accident on the stairs
Ivana Trump is seen walking her dog Tiger on a stroll with an aide in New York City in 2020. Friends say she had remained highly cloistered during the pandemic, and feared falling ill
Alavian said Trump’s demeanor was ‘very, very normal,’ but that she appeared tired.
He said that she always ordered soup to go, and that carrot soup was her favorite.
Several friends noticed that Ivana had difficulty walking recently, and said that isolation during the pandemic appeared to have taken a heavy toll.
‘She aged very rapidly the last one year,’ restaurateur Thomas Makkos, the owner of Nello, told the Post, adding that when he last saw Ivana a few months ago, ‘She seemed a little down, she seemed frail.’
‘She had difficulty walking. We had to help her home,’ he said.
Atilla Cetin, a manager at Nello, an Italian which sits a block from Ivana’s house, says she appeared in good health during her most recent visit three weeks ago.
Cetin told DailyMail.com Ivana looked ‘terrific’ and ‘appeared in good spirits’ the last time he’d seen her, and blinked back tears as he expressed regret at not visiting her before her sudden death.
Ivana was very popular with local businesses, and had been due to have her hair styled at 2pm on the day of her death. Staff there said she appeared in decent health, and was looking forward to an upcoming trip to St Tropez.
The interior of Ivana Trump Residence in New York City is seen in a file photo
Ivana’s townhouse is seen above. Several friends noticed that Ivana had difficulty walking recently
Fatih Cakirca, the brother of salon owner Salih Cakirca, told DailyMail.com on Thursday that his brother had done Ivana’s hair for 20 years, and that she came in once a week to get the ‘Ivana Classic’.
‘I’ve also known her for 20 years. She was a very nice lady, we’re shocked and sad. She had an appointment today at 2pm and the housekeeper just cancelled,’ he said.
‘I know she was going to St Tropez until September. I just saw her last Friday, she came to the salon, I did her hair. She was great, nothing wrong with her. She looked very healthy and happy. She was a very lovely lady …. Very friendly,’ added Fatih Cakirca, who works alongside his brother at Salih Salon, not far from Ivana’s home.
The New York City medical examiner’s office said Friday that Ivana died accidentally from blunt impact injuries to her torso in an apparent fall.
Police had been looking into whether she fell down the stairs after finding her unresponsive at the foot of a staircase, but the medical examiner’s brief report did not specify when the accident took place.
Earlier on Friday, Eric Trump praised his mother as an ‘extraordinary woman’ who could ski faster than ‘any man down a mountain and still look like a supermodel’.
Eric, 38, told Fox Digital on Friday that he was working in nearby Trump Tower on Thursday and was able to arrive at his mother’s apartment within minutes of being called.
A visibly devastated Eric was pictured leaving his mother’s home on Thursday afternoon around 4.30pm alongside his wife, Lara, who called her death a ‘big loss’.
Ivana’s youngest child Eric, 38, was seen outside his mother’s New York home on Thursday afternoon shortly after the news of her death broke. He issued a statement to DailyMail.com in the wake of Ivana’s passing, praising her as an ‘incredible woman’
Eric was joined by his wife Lara Trump, 39, who kept her face shielded with large sunglasses as she made her way out of her late mother-in-law’s home
His wife Lara told Fox News that Ivana was ‘an ‘incredible woman’ and that ‘New York City will never be the same without Ivana Trump.’
‘Not only was she known throughout her neighborhood but she was known throughout the city, she was an incredible socialite,’ she said.
She continued by saying ‘obviously a tough day for all of us in the family yesterday,’ but ‘we’ll all get through this’ and said you should ‘come together as a family’ when faced with situations like this.
Lara then spoke about Ivana’s life and said she was only able to escape communist Czechoslovakia because she was a ‘world class skier.’
This led her loving her life in America, and Lara said ‘no one that cherished this country more than she did, she truly appreciated America because she understood how lucky we were to be here.’
On meeting Donald Trump, who she’d eventually marry and have three kids with, Lara said they were ‘not only partners in life, but partners in business.’
Lara called Ivana an ‘incredible business woman,’ and said ‘she is credited with restoring glory to places like the Plaza Hotel’ and she ‘managed the casinos and hotels in Atlantic City.’
Donald and Ivana Trump married in 1977 and shared three children together before divorcing in 1992
Ivana Trump is survived by her mother, her three children and 10 grandchildren.
Ivana’s mother, Marie Zelníčková, is 95 and due to turn 96 in September; she was last seen with her daughter in 2019, when the family gathered to mark the matriarch’s 93rd birthday.
On Friday, Ivanka Trump posted a tribute to her mother on Instagram, sharing several family photos from throughout the years.
‘Heartbroken by the passing of my mother. Mom was brilliant, charming, passionate and wickedly funny. She modeled strength, tenacity and determination in her every action,’ wrote Ivanka.
‘She lived life to the fullest — never forgoing an opportunity to laugh and dance,’ she added. ‘I will miss her forever and will keep her memory alive in our hearts always.’
Eric also took to Instagram to post a tribute to his late mother, sharing several images of the socialite and her children over the years, including photos of Ivana with her children when they were younger.
Ivana was last pictured out and about in New York City on June 22, when she was seen leaving her Upper East Side townhouse and being escorted to a hair salon.
Images showed the socialite being assisted by an aide, who gave her arm to Ivana as they strolled down the sidewalk to her hair appointment.