A FRIEND of Ivana Trump commented that “something was wrong” and that she “lost her spark” in the year before her death, saying she never got over her ex-husband Donald cheating on her.
Ivana was found dead at the bottom of a staircase at her home around 12:40 a.m. on Thursday after someone called 911 to report a person suffer from cardiac arrest.
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James Edstrom worked as a New York Society photographer and snapped Ivana and her family “hundreds” of times in the eighties and nineties.
Some of his snaps sold for over $50,000 before the industry changed with the internet.
He says he became good friends with Ivana and would still see her at upscale restaurants and catch up with her many times over the years.
“She was a legend in this town, really,” he told The Sun exclusively. “We loved her. We all loved her.
“And when we were called to wherever she would be, we were there because we worshiped this woman.
James said Ivana was “always sweet” and “always excited.”
“She always had a gimmick to make the story work. You just can’t be photographed every day doing nothing.”
Still, her death comes as a shock to James and many others who knew her.
“I didn’t expect her death, it broke my heart and all the photographers I talk to online have their hearts broken,” he said.
“She was an amazing, amazing woman, we gave her what she wanted, media attention, published everywhere. And she gave us what we wanted: access.
Remembering the socialite’s busy schedule, James said she would often be seen at three or four events on any given night back in the day.
“She was everywhere and sometimes she wore two outfits in the same night.
“You’d be in a restaurant and she’d be there, then there’d be a bar, then you’d go to Stringfellow’s [the strip club] an hour later. There’s Ivana again.”
James said he usually bypassed Ivana’s publicist to talk to her directly, saying, “I got on very, very well with her.”
‘ SOMETHING WAS WRONG’
He last saw her in New York with Philippe Chow about a year ago and they chatted for a while.
“I told her I wanted to make a fashion book and use a photo I took years ago,” he said.
“When she and Donald got divorced, she threw a party at the Plaza Hotel and arrived in an old green antique restored checkered cab.
“I said to her, ‘Ivana, you know, I was thinking about a fashion book about the eighties. I was thinking you would use that photo for the cover.’
“She looked at me and said, ‘Wow, that would be really great.’
“But something was wrong, you know, she didn’t have that spark.
“There wasn’t that zest for life she always had. It was like it was gone. I was afraid she had Alzheimer’s or something.”
messy divorce
Ivana and Donald famously divorced in 1992 after news of his affair with Marla Maples.
Trump was still married to Ivana when he decided to… go on a date with Maples in 1989.
Ivana learned of the affair when Marla, then 26, showed up during the Trump family’s Christmas vacation in 1989 in Aspen, Colorado.
Although a divorce was pronounced in December 1990 on the grounds of alleged cruel and inhumane treatment by Trump, a settlement would not be reached until 1992.
James recalled the night he photographed her at her divorce party and said he was walking a block from the hotel and bumped into Donald going to the location.
“I said, ‘Oh, Donald, how about a quick shot?’ And his bodyguard tried to stop it Donald, I could never stand But it was the only night he ever was nice to me.
“He said to his bodyguard, ‘No, no, let him get some good shots.’ I took some quick shots and said, ‘Where are you going, Donald?’ And he goes to The Plaza.
“I said, ‘Oh, you just announced your divorce and you’re going to your wife’s party?’ He said, ‘You know!’
“So of course I turned around because I knew there would be a media madhouse once he got there. They had just announced his affair, his divorce, everything else.
“I thought, oh my God, this is the way Donald’s mind works. He knew how to piss the media off, excuse the expression. He only cared about publicity.
‘A VERY CLASSIC LADY’
“He ruined Ivana’s party and caused a frenzy,” James continued.
“And she was furious. Oh my god. When I got back there, she turned to me and she said, ‘I just can’t believe he did this.’
“But she kept calm all the time because she was, she was a very classy lady.”
He remembered that after the divorce deal, Ivana was allowed to stay with their children at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach when Donald was back in town.
“You know, and I went to Mar-a-Lago, so this is a strange thing. I got to the seat early and go into the foyer.
“Security removed every picture of Donald Trump in the building. Every picture. And they put up all the pictures of Ivana and the kids.
“Everything was very, very well controlled. Yes. I mean, when you were in Trump’s apartment in Trump Tower, there was no sense of home in that place. And it was gold everywhere. Even the faucets in the bathroom. “
‘I DON’T KNOW IF SHE EVER HAD THREATENING ABOUT HIM’
about the subject her younger partners after DonaldJames admitted, “I thought she was really stupid.”
The younger partners James referred to include her fourth husband Rossano Rubicondicwho was 23 years younger than her.
Rubicondi courted Ivana for six years before they tied the knot in April 2008 when he was 36 and she 59.
Though they divorced just a year later, their romance continued to ignite until 2019, when Ivana finally announced that they were “ending it.”
Rubicondi passed away tragically at age 49 in October 2021.
“I thought about those guys, she didn’t even know them that well and she married them right away. But I think part of the reason for that is that she wanted to get as far away from Donald as possible,” James said.
“I don’t know if she ever got over him” cheating with Marla Maples. I liked her too, but she wasn’t Ivana. I don’t know if she was more hurt or angry. What he did is simply unforgivable.”
When asked why she never took her maiden name after the divorce, he joked: “I mean, who will know Ivana Smith? [her maiden name was actually Zelnícková]. Trump was a powerful name, it always was.
“We heard things in New York when Donald was elected that she was telling people that she really was the first lady,” James laughed.
“But don’t get me started on The Donald.”
‘She ate well’
Speaking of Ivana’s health, he said: “She never smoked. And most of the time when she drank champagne it was just to walk around or toast on an occasion, I never really noticed her drinking much.
“We saw her in restaurants for years after and during the Trump presidency. She always had a big plate of food in front of her. She ate well. Mostly some kind of seafood platter and a salad.”
James isn’t the only one to comment on Ivana’s love of restaurants and dining.
Trump’s matriarch was spotted just hours before her death in Altesi Ristorante, a stone’s throw from her Upper East Side home.
she was a frequent visitor to the Italian eatery and appeared in good spirits despite eating only a “very, very small amount of food,” owner Paola Alavian told The Sun.
‘IVANA LOVES THE CHILDREN’
James remembered how much Ivana cherished her children, Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric.
“Ivana loved the kids, but it’s a shame because Donald was never around the kids, especially when they were little.
“The only time we saw Donald near the kids was when he needed attention. Like one time, he called us to a Kmart in New Jersey to photograph him and the kids and Ivana.
“Why did he call us? Because he knew the wealthy Donald Trump would go shopping at Kmart all over the world. And besides, we suspect that Kmart paid him.
“But he never had anything to do with the children. Very rarely was he with them, it was Ivana who raised them.
“They were good kids when they were young. And when they grew up, he got hold of them and destroyed them.’