Mrs. Trump to Get $20 Million and Children

Real estate developer Donald J. Trump said today he is ending his 15-year marriage to his former fashion model wife, Ivana, giving her a $20-million to $25-million share of his estimated $1.7-billion fortune and custody of their three children.

In a statement issued by Trump spokesman Dan Klores, the 43-year-old tycoon also indicated that his 40-year-old wife would no longer manage New York’s Plaza Hotel, his most prestigious real estate holding.

“Mr. Trump has always made all the business and financial decisions about the Plaza and I’m sure he’ll continue to do so,” Klores said.

Klores said that Trump decided to end the marriage nearly a week ago, before leaving for Japan to attend the Mike Tyson-James (Buster) Douglas fight as one of Tyson’s most prominent fans.

“Prior to leaving for Japan last Tuesday, Mr. Trump told his wife that, as painful as it was, the marriage was no longer working out,” Klores said. “Mrs. Trump then decided not to go to Tokyo.

“There is a prenuptial agreement whereby Mrs. Trump will receive a multimillion-dollar, 45-room mansion in Greenwich, Conn., and somewhere between $20 and $25 million. She also will retain custody of the three children.”

Trump’s fortune was estimated last year by Forbes magazine in its Forbes Four Hundred at $1.7 billion, the nation’s 19th largest.

Trump denied in another statement, reported in the Daily News, rumors that his wife initiated divorce proceedings because of his womanizing.

“As for those other women I have been linked with, I want to say that we are all ‘just friends,’ and that’s as far as it goes,” he was quoted as saying. “It is better for Ivana and me to separate at this time. But I am leaving because I want to leave.”

Mrs. Trump could not be reached for comment. She was reported to be staying at the luxury penthouse suite in Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, which the Trumps used as their principal residence. With her were their two sons and a daughter.

Trump, who transformed his father’s $40-million Queensboro real estate kingdom into a Manhattan-based empire, met his Vienna-born wife in Montreal when she was a model and married her in 1975.

A source close to Trump was quoted by the Daily News as saying the developer is not planning to negotiate a gilt-edged settlement with his wife on the grounds that she was not considered a vital part of his business empire.