Trump Will Seek Divorce; Wed 13 Years : Developer: Lawyer calls a prenuptial accord that would give wife of billionaire up to $25 million ‘fraudulent.’

Billionaire developer Donald J. Trump announced Monday he will seek a divorce from his wife of 13 years, Ivana, and said under the terms of a prenuptial agreement she would receive $20 million to $25 million of his fortune--estimated at $1.7 billion.

Mrs. Trump promptly disagreed, firing through her lawyer the first volleys of what could be a protracted and bitter court battle between her and her husband, the best-selling author of “The Art of the Deal.” She is a former Czech Olympic ski team alternate who became one of the most photographed and quoted members of New York society.

In a statement on Trump’s behalf, a spokesman said Trump told his wife their marriage was in deep trouble almost a week ago before he flew to Tokyo for the Mike Tyson-James Douglas heavyweight championship fight. When he returned, he moved out of their triplex penthouse.

Trump spokesman Dan Klores said the real estate developer--whose holdings include the Plaza Hotel and Trump Tower on 5th Avenue, Atlantic City gambling casinos, the Trump air shuttle and Mar-a-Lago, a palatial home in Palm Beach, Fla.--would give Mrs. Trump, in addition to the money, the family’s 45-room mansion in Greenwich, Conn. She will also retain custody of their three children.

But hours later, Michael Kennedy, a lawyer for the 40-year-old former fashion model, said his client did not consider the agreement signed prior to the Trumps’ marriage in 1977 to be binding.

“We do not consider the so-called prenuptial agreement to be serious,” Kennedy said. “It will have no relevance to a court because it is unconscionable and fraudulent.”

Sources close to Trump saw things differently, noting the agreement was updated two years ago and describing the document as “extraordinarily tight.”

At one point Monday, there were reports that Trump would discharge his wife as president of the Plaza Hotel. But later in the day, Klores said Mrs. Trump’s status at the hotel was uncertain.

“She’s still at the Plaza,” Klores said. “Donald would not do anything to hurt her right now and, anyway, he hasn’t made up his mind as to what her role at the Plaza will be.

“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.”

In another statement reported in the New York Daily News, Trump denied rumors that his wife had begun divorce proceedings because of his alleged womanizing.

“It is better for Ivana and me to separate at this time,” he said. “But I am leaving because I want to leave.”

Under the terms of the prenuptial agreement, Mrs. Trump would receive a cash settlement amounting to less than 2% of her husband’s holdings--a state of affairs Kennedy immediately challenged. He noted that his client had held top management jobs at the Trump Castle in Atlantic City and at the Plaza in New York.

“This is an extremely difficult time for Mrs. Trump and her children,” her lawyer said. “She is a family woman. Her marriage and her family have always been the most important things in her life.

“Mr. Trump has now left her and her children, and while one hopes for a reconciliation, my mandate at this time is to document . . . the years of marriage and partnership in the Trump holdings.”

Clearly, in any divorce proceedings, the prenuptial agreement signed by the Trumps will be a centerpiece of contention.

Charles Haar, Brandeis professor of law at the Harvard Law School, said key issues will include whether Ivana Trump was represented by counsel when the agreement was drawn, whether her deep love of her husband at the time overcame her business sense and the extent of her contribution to the Trumps’ joint estate.

Haar said the issue of Mrs. Trump’s involvement in her husband’s business affairs might void the premarital contract.

“Here you have assets that have been developed by them as a joint venture,” the Harvard professor, a specialist in such contracts, said. “Is the Plaza to be included in the prenuptial? . . . You have to distinguish between assets brought to the altar, post-wedding date acquisitions and the contributions each of the partners made to the post-nuptial acquisitions.”

Trump, 43, who expanded the base of his father’s $40-million real-estate business into a billion-dollar enterprise, is regarded among fellow real estate tycoons as a savvy, often brash deal maker. But in a contested divorce, some of the words he wrote in happier times could come back to cause potential difficulties in court.

“I like to kid her (Ivana) that she works harder than I do,” Trump said in his 1987 book that climbed to the top of best-seller lists. “Last year, when I bought my second casino from the Hilton Corp. and renamed it Trump’s Castle, I decided to put Ivana in charge. She’s incredibly good at anything she’s ever done, a natural manager.”

The Trumps met at the Montreal Summer Olympic Games in 1976. Ten months later, they were married.

PRENUPTIAL AGREEMENTS--Not the stuff of romance, the premarital settling of money matters has long been the dominion of the rich, famous. D1