Melania Trump: How is her relationship with her step daughter Ivanka Trump?

As Donald Trump is currently facing extreme pressure due to a string of criminal investigations into his business activities and a sexual assault and defamation verdict, his private life is more scrutinised than ever.

These difficulties allegedly put a strain on his relationship with his wife Melania, with divorce rumours regularly circulating in the media.

Even his staunchest supporter daughter Ivankahas reportedly decided to distance herself from her disgraced father.

Multiple sources have previously revealed that the former First Lady and First Daughter who always accompanied Donald Trump to all the official events throughout his US presidency have never really warmed up to each other.

Here is what we know about the relationship between the two now when matters are more complicated than ever.

Meanwhile, Melania Trump has an unexpectedly high personal net worth. Find out how she met her future husband and what her former model girlfriends think about her character.

Melania and Ivanka reportedly always had an ‘icy’ relationship

Relationship between two main women in Donald Trump’s life - his wife Melania and his daughter Ivanka - has been repeatedly scrutinised over the years.

Multiple insiders, body language specialists, journalists and authors all agree that these two fashionistas don't see eye-to-eye.

Although Trump’s first wife and Ivanka’s mother Ivana once said that her daughter liked her model stepmother ‘fine’ as she wasn’t the one responsible for her parents' divorce, and the former First Lady’s spokesperson Stephanie Grisham did her best to reassure the world that the two women 'always shared a close relationship’, multiple accounts reveal the opposite.

Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, who was a close friend of the Slovenian beauty during Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and tenure, provided juicy details to confirm the lack of affection between Ivanka and her stepmother.

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In her book Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship With the First Lady Workoff wrote that her then-friend worked hard to distance herself from Ivanka Trump and even resorted to petty plotting to keep the latter out of the spotlight during Trump’s inauguration.

Back in 2020, the video of Ivanka at the Republican National Convention moving swiftly past her stepmother, whole smile quickly faded, became a meme.

Wolkoff also revealed what Melania really thought about her stepdaughter and her husband Jared Kushner, referring to a particular text she received: You know how they are snakes.

According to Wolkoff, Melania even had a nickname for Donald’s favourite daughter - Princess - that she used in her text exchanges with her friend.

What’s more, the former First Lady didn’t want to co-host events with Ivanka, annoyed that her stepdaughter always intended to take credit for them.

Even Melania’s fashion choices were poisoned by her ‘hardly affectionate’ relationship with Trump’s daughter, Wolkoff alleges. If Melania saw Ivanka wearing a particular dress, she would never consider wearing a designer who created it.

Melania and Ivanka’s relationship post-Presidency

Always her father's staunch supporter, Ivanka reportedly distanced herself from him amid his criminal charges and sexual assault verdict.

Meanwhile, Melania 'stays relatively put' in the couple's Florida home despite the growing risk that her husband may spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Media has recently cited an anonymous source close to the Trumps that rushed to reassure that Melania will ‘stand by her man’ in his hour of need.

Yet another unnamed source said:

Melania knows what she signed up for. She is in a wait-and-see position. [Donald will] either be in prison or be president. Or both.

As her father faces extreme pressure, Ivanka is reportedly ‘keeping her head in the sand’ on the beach in Miami and wants to ‘distance herself from all things Trump’.

While her intention to change her name to Ivanka Kushner may be just a rumour, ‘she was clearly smart enough to stay far away from the toxic Trump brand ever since her dad lost the 2020 presidential election’, The Guardian wrote earlier this year.

As Ivanka seemed to have minimised the contact with her father, at least in the public domain, it’s very unlikely her relationship with her stepmother got any warmer.

Read more:

⋙ Prince William and Kate Middleton compared to Melania and Donald Trump because of one odd look

⋙ Melania Trump reportedly disregarded by Donald yet again despite her support for him

Sources used:

- Express: 'Ivanka Trump and Melania’s relationship indicates they are ‘like-minded’ and ‘competitive’'

- Elle: 'Inside Melania Trump’s Drastic Steps to Distance Herself From 'Snake' Ivanka'

- The Guardian: 'Inside Melania Trump’s Drastic Steps to Distance Herself From 'Snake' Ivanka'