Things You Didn’t Know About Ivanka Trump

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11. Boarding School

Ivanka attended the Chapin School in Manhattan but was transferred to the private boarding school Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut, when she was 15. She didn’t enjoy her time there. Years later, she said that she became a model because she wanted to get out of Wallingford.”

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10. Painful Divorce

During the early ‘90s, her parents went through a very public and messy divorce, which played out in the tabloids. According to Ivanka, her parent’s divorce brought her and her siblings closer to her father. “Not because I was taking his side, but because I could no longer take him for granted,” she said. Ivanka and her two brothers, Eric and Don Jr., were hounded by the media during this time, which is why Ivana decided to send them to boarding school.

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9. Co-hosted Miss Teen USA pageant

In 1997, when she was just 15, she co-hosted the Miss Teen USA. Although she had fun while doing it, her nervousness affected her performance. TV Guide complained that she “was clearly not up to the rigors of live television. Posing and posturing woodenly, she stumbled over her lines all night, mangling both grammar (she asked the reigning winner, ‘And what is the next for you?’) and geography (she referred to one contestant as Miss Illinoise). Seeing his daughter up onstage may have made Mr. Trump proud as he sat in the from row, but for the rest of us, it was merely painful.”

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8. Business School

Trump began her post-secondary education at Georgetown University; she stayed there for two years before she transferred to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2004, she graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in economics and a grade point average of 3.4.

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7. Competitive Spirit

Both of her parents are naturally very competitive; her mother was a competitive skier and her father has a reputation for being a cutthroat negotiator. As a result, she and her siblings were bred to be competitive. According to Ivanka, the level of competition wasn’t negative; instead, it was “a bit of a kick to have that natural resistance to complacency, and an important instrument to achieving lofty goals.”

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6. Born Negotiator

She is known for her savvy negotiation skills. According to her mother, “She was always a savvy deal maker and negotiator, even as a little girl. She could charm anyone.” While Trump’s been successful as a negotiator as the Executive Vice-President of Development & Acquisition at The Trump Organization, she knows when she’s not best suited to a particular negotiation and steps aside. “I’ve had deals over the years where I just haven’t had good chemistry with the person across the table from me,” she said. “So I’ve said to one of my brothers, ‘You know what, you will be more effective than I will.’ And that takes a level of confidence.”

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5. Other Relationships

Before she settled down with Jared Kushner, Ivanka had a number of serious relationships. During college, she dated investment banker Greg Hersch for almost four years. Following that breakup, she dated producer James “Bingo” Gubelmann. She appeared in his and Johnson & Johnson heir Jamie Johnson’s 2003 documentary Born Rich. In 2005, they broke up. Other famous men that she’s been connected to include Topher Grace, Lance Armstrong, and Pierce Brosnan’s son Sean.

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4. Breakup with Jared Kushner

Trump began dating Jared Kushner in the spring of 2007 and it seemed like it was a match made in heaven. Unfortunately, the fact that she wasn’t Jewish was a deal breaker for Kushner’s mother, so he broke up with her. They only reconciled after she agreed to convert to Judaism. In 2009, the two were married, with his parent’s approval.

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3. Postpartum Depression

Ivanka revealed in 2017 that she experienced postpartum depression following the births of each her children. “With each of my three children, I had some level of postpartum depression,” she said. It was a very challenging emotional time for me because I felt like I was not living up to my potential as a parent or as an entrepreneur and executive. I had had such easy pregnancies that in some way, the juxtaposition hit me even harder.”

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2. Learning to Cook

Prior to converting to Judaism, the blonde businessman had never cooked. It was only after the conversion when the couple began observing the Sabbath that she decided that she wanted to be able to cook for their family. “I was a total incompetent in the kitchen. I probably would have Googled how to boil an egg at that point in my life,” she told Wendy Williams. “There’s something that feels very feminine to me about being able to do that for my husband. Just the ability to come home and be able to offer him that once a week and to be able to cook a dinner for us as a family.”

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1. She Loved Gossip Girl

Ivanka was a big fan of Gossip Girl, which is why she agreed to make a cameo with Jared in the season four episode “Easy J.” “I never miss an episode of Gossip Girl. I think I’m a cross between Blair Waldorf and Lily van der Woodsen when it comes to the style. I like the uptown city style and a clean-cut, streamlined silhouette,” she told In Style.

Cate

Cate has a B.A. and an M.A. in English Literature and has been the Managing Editor of Fame10 for more than 6 years. Despite having a love for the works of Thomas Hardy, Leo Tolstoy and Lord Byron, she also has an intense fascination with pop culture. When she isn’t writing for Fame10, she’s planning her next big adventure in Southeast Asia.