Donald Trump’s Second Wife Left the Spotlight to Raise Their Daughter — See Marla Maples Today at 62

For many years, Marla Maples lived in the full glare of public attention. Her relationship with Donald Trump filled tabloid pages, their 1993 marriage became one of New York’s biggest celebrity occasions, and the arrival of their daughter, Tiffany, kept Maples tied to one of the best-known families in the United States.

After her marriage to Donald Trump came to an end, however, Maples took an unexpected path. Rather than continuing to pursue the luxurious world with which she had become associated, she withdrew from the spotlight and focused on bringing up Tiffany. In time, she created a life shaped by family, spirituality and wellness.

Decades after her intensely public marriage to Trump, Maples is now living through a markedly different period.

From rural Georgia to New York City

Marla Maples was born on October 27, 1963, in the small community of Cohutta, Georgia. She has called her upbringing there storybook-perfect.

She excelled in athletics, was well liked by classmates and became her high school’s homecoming queen. The close Southern community surrounding her childhood later became the kind of environment she hoped to provide for her daughter.

Maples enrolled at the University of Georgia and studied marketing, but departed after approximately two and a half years. Before long, her attention shifted toward New York City.

In New York, she sought work in modeling and entertainment and participated in beauty competitions while attempting to build a career. She was still young, driven and establishing herself when she encountered a businessman who was already among the city’s most recognizable personalities: Donald Trump.

The relationship that turned into a nationwide scandal

Maples has said that she first met Trump in 1985. In her account, there was an immediate connection, although the circumstances were not right for a relationship.

They remained in contact for years and occasionally encountered one another. By 1988, Maples said, she understood that her emotions had become serious.

Recalling that point in an interview with New York magazine, she said that by ’88 she knew she truly loved him.

There was one major complication: Trump remained married to Ivana Trump.

Maples later explained that she believed Donald and Ivana already intended to end their marriage, and she tried to maintain her distance. Eventually, though, concealing the relationship was no longer possible.

A photograph taken around 1992 in New York City showed property developer Donald Trump attending an event with his girlfriend Marla Maples. Vinnie Zuffante photographed the couple for Getty Images.

Then an event occurred that changed the situation completely. Maples’ picture and identity reached the New York tabloids, transforming a previously private romance into a story followed across the country.

She later described a deeply uncomfortable meeting with Ivana in Colorado. Maples said both women wanted the truth. Although she felt it was ultimately good that the reality became public, she said this was also when the genuine hurt started. She came to believe that both she and Ivana had been misled, leaving them in an awful position while everyone watched.

Several weeks later, Maples was watching a televised boxing match when a breaking-news notice announced that Donald and Ivana were getting divorced. By then, her efforts to avoid the attention had come too late.

Being with Donald Trump carried a cost

Maples and Trump eventually began appearing publicly as a couple, and she quickly became one of the most frequently photographed women in the country.

She later acknowledged that a relationship with Trump required her to adjust to an exceptionally glamorous existence. Her makeup and hair were expected to look flawless, expensive designer outfits became routine, and public events formed part of ordinary life.

Donald Trump and Marla Maples were photographed at their wedding reception on December 20, 1993, at New York City’s Plaza Hotel by Ron Galella for the Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images.

As time passed, Maples said she began feeling that some part of her own identity had disappeared.

She recalled that she loved Trump and, despite being young, had made her own decision. She described being swept up by his charm and said refusing him was extremely difficult. Maples also maintained that she saw goodness in him.

Their partnership ultimately brought marriage and the birth of Tiffany.

An extravagant ceremony and a restrictive prenup

Tiffany was born in October 1993. Donald and Marla married later in 1993 at a lavish celebration inside the Plaza Hotel in New York City.

Behind the opulence, however, stood a notably strict prenuptial contract.

Vanity Fair reported that Maples had sought a $25 million divorce settlement. Under the agreement she eventually accepted, she would receive $1 million if the marriage ended within five years, along with an additional $1 million to help her buy a home.

A photograph from Donald Trump and Marla Maples’ wedding day on December 20, 1993, at the Plaza Hotel in New York City was taken by Sonia Moskowitz for Getty Images.

The contract also established conditions for Tiffany’s financial support. Trump committed to paying $100,000 annually in child support, but the payments could stop if Tiffany secured full-time employment, enlisted in the military or joined the Peace Corps before she reached 21.

The prenup also imposed confidentiality requirements regarding the marriage.

Despite the enormous spectacle of their wedding, Donald and Marla’s marriage survived for fewer than six years. They separated in 1997, and the divorce became final in 1999.

That moment marked the beginning of an entirely new direction for Maples.

“I wasn’t there for the glamorous life or the riches”

Some people leave a famous divorce determined to hold on to public attention. Maples chose precisely the opposite.

She moved to California with Tiffany and started constructing a considerably quieter way of life. During a 2016 interview, Maples rejected the idea that wealth had motivated her marriage to Trump.

She said she had not entered the relationship for riches or a glamorous lifestyle.

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At one stage following the divorce, she even lived in a comparatively modest apartment measuring 740 square feet.

Maples also dismissed claims that Trump paid her to keep quiet. She said the suggestion that he compensated her not to discuss him was untrue.

For her, social position and money were not the central priorities. Maples explained that the amount of wealth a person possessed mattered less than how people connected with and supported one another.

She hoped to give Tiffany an ordinary childhood

The most important transformation may have been visible in the way Maples brought up her daughter.

Because she had spent her early years in rural Georgia, Maples wanted Tiffany to experience a similarly grounded upbringing, even though the girl’s father was one of America’s most famous business figures.

Their California home life was deliberately uncomplicated. Mother and daughter prepared food at home, shared time together and found pleasure in normal activities. A trip to the cinema counted as their special evening out.

Maples did not want paparazzi, elite functions or the difficult relationship between Tiffany’s parents to define her daughter’s childhood.

A 1995 image from New York City showed Donald Trump and Marla Maples together with their daughter, Tiffany Trump. Catherine McGann took the photograph for Getty Images.

Maples told People that she and Tiffany loved seeing movies together and regarded those outings as their big nights. Tiffany later described their closeness simply, saying they were constantly together and that her mother allowed her to enjoy a normal childhood.

Maples also deliberately supported Tiffany in maintaining a connection with Donald.

She explained that it was essential for Tiffany to develop her own bond with her father, free from her mother’s judgment. Maples wanted to provide enough consistency for Tiffany to see him, so she took her daughter to New York several times each year to spend time with Donald.

Tiffany eventually celebrated an opulent wedding of her own

Years afterward, Maples saw Tiffany step into a very different version of the public eye.

Tiffany married businessman Michael Boulos on November 12, 2022, at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property in Florida. The ceremony was as luxurious as observers might expect from the Trump family.

The bride wore an Elie Saab wedding gown, while Maples selected a lavender dress by the same designer for her appearance as mother of the bride.

Donald escorted Tiffany down the aisle. Later, the two shared an emotional dance between father and daughter. In his wedding toast, Trump commended Boulos and gave him one straightforward instruction: Michael had better look after her.

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The wedding nearly encountered a major setback when Hurricane Nicole reached Florida only days ahead of the event.

Organizers had to cancel some activities, and travel plans were thrown into disorder after Palm Beach International Airport temporarily closed. In spite of the disruption, Tiffany and Boulos continued with the wedding celebration.

Maples reached another significant point in 2025 when she became a grandmother for the first time.

Tiffany and Boulos welcomed a son, Alexander Trump Boulos, on May 15, 2025. Maples immediately embraced the role and affectionately began calling herself Gran Mar Mar.

After the child arrived, she wrote that nothing in the world could bring greater joy.

Marla Maples at 62: Living a completely transformed life

Maples’ present-day routine has little in common with her years as Trump’s wife.

She continues to devote considerable energy to yoga, wellness, spirituality and personal development. Across the years, she has also worked in television, acting and music, with appearances in shows and films including Dallas, Clueless and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

Maples issued the album The Endless in 2013 and took part in Dancing with the Stars in 2016.

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She also created SoulShine Journeys, a spiritual travel project focused on wellness, reflection and individual growth.

Rather than trying to reconstruct the extravagant existence connected with her marriage, Maples appears to have discovered satisfaction in another kind of life. Her change has attracted notice from followers.

On social media, fans often applaud both her wellness-centered lifestyle and her natural appearance. Commenters have called her a natural beauty and said that she looks amazing.

Her newest photographs prompted strong reactions

In August, Maples posted pictures from a visit to Florence, Italy, giving followers a view of her world beyond celebrity culture and politics.

She thanked Florence for its beauty, friendships, conversations and peaceful moments spent contemplating centuries of art and faith.

One of the images showed a relaxed Maples standing beneath an umbrella in an understated white bikini.

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There were no photographers, red carpets or extravagant venues in sight. Instead, the photographs showed sunshine, travel and a woman who seemed entirely at ease with herself.

Other pictures featured Maples in coordinating cream shorts and a tank top. Another showed her carrying a rosary before entering an ancient church.

Followers responded almost immediately. One person said she appeared beautiful and relaxed.

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Another admirer called her a very beautiful woman and said the bikini looked wonderful on her. A third follower offered an even simpler reaction, declaring her spectacular.

After years inside one of the most publicized celebrity marriages in America, Maples seems to have gained something that the designer wardrobes and surrounding luxury could never purchase: the freedom to live according to her own choices.

Marla Maples was photographed attending Samira’s Network Luxury Gala and Academy Awards Viewing Party at the Hilton Universal City Hotel on March 02, 2025, in Universal City, California. Anna Webber took the photograph for Getty Images on behalf of Samira’s Network.