Marla Maples has issued a dramatic apology to Ivana Trump – saying she’s sorry for stealing away Donald Trump, branding the billionaire developer “ego-driven” and “obsessive.”
“I regret the harm I have caused Ivana and I’ve apologized to her,” Maples told London’s Daily Telegraph newspaper. “I know she lives in London now and, if she reads this, I want her to know again how sorry I am about everything.”
Donald and Ivana split in 1992, two years after the real-estate mogul was caught in a secret love affair with the Georgia Peach. Ivana ended up with a $25 million settlement. Donald and Marla wed a year later, only to separate after four years.
Marla, now engaged to Norman Mailer’s son, Michael, and living in Los Angeles, is quoted as telling The Telegraph, “Donald was never the man I wanted to marry. He and his world were alien to me … I’m so happy to be away from Donald and I’m just trying to move as far away as I can.
“Donald was obsessed with me and was always running after me. I couldn’t get away.
“From the time I was 22, he pursued me and, foolishly, I listened to some of his promises.”
Marla said her marriage to Trump “was built on an illusion. I thought that I could change him. But he won’t change.
“Then I finally found the courage to walk away and stay away … After I became a mother I was less willing to put up with his behavior.
“What did a 22-year-old girl from Georgia know about life in New York?” Marla doesn’t think much of her ex-hubby’s possible run for president – he reportedly will announce today he’s entering the Reform Party’s presidential primary in California.
“If he’s really serious about being president and runs in the general election next year, I will not be silent,” Marla said.
“I will feel it is my duty to tell the American people what he is really like. But I can’t imagine that they would really elect him, would they?
“His drug is attention. He’s so ego-driven,” said Marla.
Trump wasn’t available for comment yesterday, but a source close to the developer said Marla phoned him to say the article was inaccurate.
“She told him she didn’t say those things and he accepts that,” the source said.
Marla’s spokeswoman, Jennifer Bretan, said the newspaper took her remarks out of context, but wouldn’t go into specifics.