Ivana Trump was reportedly in good spirits but tired and ordered only a small amount of food as she dined at her favourite New York restaurant hours before she was found dead at the age of 73, according to the distraught owner, Daily Mail reports.
Paola Alavian, who owns Italian eatery Altesi’s located just a short walk from Ivana’s townhouse in Manhattan’s upmarket Upper East Side, said she had dined with him on Wednesday night – the day before she died.
Ivana seemed in good spirits, he said, but ‘looked maybe a little bit tired’ and ordered a ‘very, very small amount of food’ before collecting the check and heading home for the last time.
The following morning, while climbing the stairs inside her apartment, the businesswoman and former model suffered what is believed to have been a cardiac arrest – causing her to fall.
She was found lying at the bottom of the staircase shortly after midday Thursday by a female member of staff arriving for work who unlocked the door, discovered she wasn’t breathing, and called the police.
Cops say they were called to the apartment to report someone suffering a cardiac arrest around 12.40 pm before Ms. Trump was pronounced dead. A post-mortem is being carried out to establish the exact cause and time of her death. A source close to the family said her health had been declining for some time.
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Ivana was best known as the first wife of real-estate heir and businessman Donald Trump, who she married in 1977, and as the mother to his three eldest children – Ivanka, Eric, and Donald Jr.
The pair divorced in 1992 after she discovered he was having an affair with the woman who would go on to become his second wife, Marla Maples. Ivana went on to become a businesswoman in her own right, as well as a media personality, fashion designer, and author.
Born behind the Soviet Iron Curtain before finding her way to Canada and then New York where she made her fortune, she is perhaps best remembered by a line she delivered in the 1996 film The First Wives Club shortly after divorcing Trump: ‘Ladies, you have to be strong and independent, and remember, don´t get mad, get everything.’
Ivana was last pictured out and about in New York City on June 22, when she was seen leaving her Upper East Side townhouse and being escorted to the hair salon.
READ ALSO: BREAKING: Ivana Trump, former US president’s first wife is dead
Images showed the socialite being assisted by an aide, who gave her an arm as they strolled down the sidewalk to her hair appointment.
Ivana had also planned to visit her regular salon on Thursday, in preparation for a St. Tropez getaway.
Fatih Cakirca, the brother of salon owner Salih Cakirca, told DailyMail.com that his brother had done Ivana’s hair for 20 years and that she came in once a week to get the ‘Ivana Classic’.
‘I’ve also known her for 20 years. She was a very nice lady, we were shocked and sad. She had an appointment today at 2 pm and the housekeeper just cancelled,’ he said.
‘I know she was going to St Tropez until September. I just saw her last Friday, she came to the salon, I did her hair. She was great, nothing wrong with her. She looked very healthy and happy. She was a very lovely lady …. Very friendly,’ added Fatih Cakirca, who works alongside his brother at Salih Salon, not far from Ivana’s home.
The 73-year-old grandmother had remained highly cloistered during the COVID-19 pandemic but planned to depart for her St. Tropez trip on Friday, her best friend Nikki Haskell told Page Six.
‘She was leaving for St. Tropez tomorrow. This was going to be her first trip away since the pandemic,’ said Haskell. ‘She was afraid of getting the virus,’
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