By Aaron Miller-
Ivana Trump, the first wife of Donald Trump and the mother of his three oldest children, died from blunt force injuries to her torso inflicted by an accidental fall, New York City’s chief medical examiner said on Friday.
The former president announced that Ivana Trump died aged 73, a day earlier at her Manhattan home, but did not specify about the cause or manner of her death.
Our mother was an incredible woman — a force in business, a world-class athlete, a radiant beauty, and caring mother and friend,” the Trump family said in a statement on Thursday.
On Friday, a spokesperson for the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner confirmed reports that Ivana Trump apparently fell inadvertently, and was found at the bottom of her home’s stairs. The spokesperson added that her death is not suspicious
U.S health officials say falls are the leading cause of injury-related death for people who are 65 years of age or older. About 64 out of 100,000 elderly people die as a result of accidental falls, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A senior New York City official with direct knowledge of the matter said the circumstances of her death are consistent with a fall on the stairs and that the death is not suspicious.
The official ruling came a day after Ivana, 73, was found dead in her Manhattan residence after the New York Fire Department responded to a call from there.
Earlier on Friday, the New York state Attorney General’s Office said it had agreed at the request of lawyers for Donald Trump and two of his children to postpone depositions of them that had been scheduled for next week in light of Ivana’s death.
Ivana Trump was born in Zlin – now the Czech Republic – in 1949. She was a skier, ski instructor and model before marrying Donald Trump in 1977, when he was a real estate tycoon.
She partnered with Trump in managing casinos and hotels, while helping him become a Manhattan and global socialite throughout the 1980s. She was also the mother to his children Donald Jr, Ivanka and Eric.
The couple divorced in 1992, due to Trump’s infidelity. He later married and divorced Marla Maples, with whom he had daughter Tiffany, and is now with his third wife, Melania Knauss Trump, the mother of his son Barron and the first lady during his presidency from 2017 to 2021.
Ivana Trump had said she supported her ex-husband’s run for the White House but said she wanted “this whole thing to be over with” after he lost to Joe Biden and desperately sought to overturn the result, including by telling his supporters to “fight like hell” shortly before hundreds of them mounted a deadly attack on the Capitol.
She said she believed her children “enjoyed being around Donald and running the election and seeing what will happen” but she wanted them to one day “be able to live their normal lives”.
Emergency responders investigating a call from Ivana Trump’s home on Manhattan’s Upper East Side found her unconscious, pronouncing her dead at the scene . They noted that there did “not appear to be any criminality”, police said in a statement.
Donald Trump Jr., Ivana Trump, Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump On Sept. 21, 2015, in Briarcliff Manor City. Bobby Bank/WireImage/Getty Image
Prior to the release of the medical examiner’s findings omFriday, Donald Trump said that “out of love and respect for Ivana” he was postponing a rally scheduled for Saturday in Arizona to support the Republican candidate for governor, Kari Lake, until July 22.
A statement from a state AG spokesperson read: “We offer our condolences to the Trump family.”