Donald Trump has had his fair share of romances over the years. The former POTUS has been married three times, though the initial meetings with each of them weren’t that great.
At the same time as the former President has enjoyed matrimony, he’s also been in involved in quite a lot of controversies regarding affairs and romances. As per incredible reports, that includes an attempted whooing of Princess Diana, who was on the wrong end of an affair herself as her husband, Prince Charles, courted someone else during their marriage.
When imagining “Princess Diana” and the “White House”, many probably think of the classic pictures of her dancing with John Travolta. But did you know that Donald Trump actually had a thing for Diana, and tried to date her once upon a time?
Well, if you didn’t, here’s how that very strange romance actually nearly* came to be!
Donald Trump met hundreds of officials, prime ministers, presidents and other leaders during his four-year tenure as President of the United States. As a president, one can expect to attend many events at the White House, including dances with many guests.
Princess Diana – Travolta dance
If Donald Trump did any dancing during his time, it’s unclear. One thing’s for sure, and that’s Princess Diana has danced at the White House. With none over than John Travolta.
It all happened at a state dinner in 1985, hosted by then-President Ronald Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan.
Nancy Regan reportedly approached Travolta, taking him aside and informing him that another guest had a very special request. It turned out to be Princess Diana, who really wanted to dance with him.
However, Travolta was nervous to ask Diana to dance. He waited until midnight, when he cautiously approached her and said: “Excuse me, princess, would you care to dance?”
Princess Diana and John Travolta soon stood on the dance floor together, and it led to one of the most iconic White House moments of all time. The Princess was wearing a wonderful black Victor Edelstein gown, and Travolta was dressed in a black tuxedo.
“An amazing moment”
Travolta described his feelings as those like “a frog who had been turned into a prince.”
Speaking to the Mirror in 2007, he actually credited the dance with Diana as “saving” his career.
“That was an amazing moment because I was having a dip in my career and no one was interested in me,” he said. “Suddenly, I was the only thing that mattered in America to Princess Diana. I was like ‘Wow! I matter to someone again’.”
At the same time as Diana danced with John Travolta, the Princess was heading for a marriage crisis.
According to Prince Charles’ authorized biography, as quoted by Town & Country, he started an affair with Camilla in 1986. At that time, Charles was still married to Princes Diana, and she found out about it.
In 1989, Diana confronted Camilla – who still was married to her husband Andrew Parker Bowles – over the affair, telling her to back off.
Princess Diana – Charles’ affair
“I know what’s going on between you and Charles and I just want you to know that,” Camilla recalled Diana saying in a tape released by The Telegraph, as quoted by Town & Country.
“[Diana] said to me: ‘You’ve got everything you ever wanted. You’ve got all the men in the world falling in love with you and you’ve got two beautiful children, what more do you want?'”
“So I said, ‘I want my husband.’ And I said, ‘I’m sorry I’m in the way and it must be hell for both of you. But I do know what’s going on. Don’t treat me like an idiot,'” Camilla explained.
Camilla and her husband Andrew divorced in 1995, and the following year, Charles and Diana divorced as well. The Princess’ tragic passing in 1997 sent shockwaves throughout the entire world, leaving princes Harry and William without their beloved mother.
At the same time as Princess Diana was going through an ugly period with her husband, Donald Trump was steadily growing into one of the most powerful men in business.
Donald Trump – romances
The real estate mogul and future President had taken over his father’s business and had expanded his empire into Manhattan, New York City.
He had married his first wife, Ivana Trump, in 1977; the couple met in 1976 at a flamboyant New York restaurant called Maxwell’s Plum.
When Ivana – who was working as a model at the time – and her friends had finished their meal, Donald Trump paid the bill and suddenly disappeared. For her, it was rather strange, since she hadn’t met a man who “didn’t want anything from a woman and paid for it”.
Ivana left the restaurant, only to find Trump sitting outside in his limousine. At this time in his career, he had grown the Trump empire and inherited his father Fred Trump’s multimillion real-estate and development business.
“He drove us home and then we started to date,” Ivana said.
As Diana and Charles separated in 1992, Donald Trump was in the middle of his own affair.
He’d met a woman named Marla Maples about seven years later, and the two soon got engaged in an affair.
Donald Trump meeting Princess Diana
Maples has described how she and Donald had an instant connection, but she recalls that the timing just wasn’t right. They spent a lot of time talking on the telephone, though they didn’t meet in public.
“By ’88, I knew I truly loved this guy,” Maples said in a New York magazine interview.
Marla ran into Donald several times through the years, and eventually Ivana realized that something was up. Maples claimed she was made to believe that there was a plan in place for Donald to end his marriage, but at that point she decided to lay low and not get in the middle of things.
She didn’t want to be a part of it, and decided to “run away as far as possible”. Papers made up stories about where she was, but ultimately she couldn’t leave Donald completely and the two began to date.
“I loved this man. Yes, I was young, but it was my choice. I was romanced, I had Mister Charm all over me, and it was very hard to say no. When that man wants something, he’ll stop at nothing to get it. And I also believed in the good of him,” said Maples.
In 1993, Marla Maples and Donald Trump got married. They then welcomed daughter Tiffany Trump the same year.
Both attended charity gala
During their marriage, Marla and Donald went to many different galas and fancy events. One of those was in 1995, when they attended the United Cerebral Palsy charity gala in New York City.
The same night, Princess Diana was also in attendance. She was named Humanitarian of the Year at the star-studded charity event, in recognition of her work with sick and underprivileged children.
At the time, Diana had just appeared in highly- published television interview on British television. She had grown in fame in the US as a result, and developed many admirers.
Though Donald Trump was married to Marla at the time, it seems like he was very fond of the Princess.
At the charity event dinner, Donal Trump reportedly offered Diana a free membership to his famous Mar-a-Lago Florida golf club. However, Diana – who was dating American billionaire Theodore Forstmann at the time – declined.
For his part, Donald didn’t seem to back off. Instead, he stepped up his game.
Donald Trump gave Diana “the creeps”
According to British television journalist Selina Scott – who hosted a documentary about Trump for British TV network ITV in 1995, Trump sent Diana “massive bouquets” shortly after her divorce from Charles in 1996.
But instead of coming off as a romantic man, Diana instead thought Donald Trump gave her “the creeps”.
“Trump clearly saw Diana as the ultimate trophy wife, and launched a ‘floral bombardment’ of orchids and roses on Kensington Palace from across the Atlantic,” Selina Scott said, as quoted by NY Post.
“As the roses and orchids piled up at her apartment she became increasingly concerned about what she should do. It had begun to feel as if Trump was stalking her.”
Scott’s claims that Trump thought Diana would be the “ultimate trophy wife” appear to hold some weight.
“She had supermodel beauty”
Speaking on The Howard Stern Show in 1997 – just weeks after Diana’s passing – Trump spoke on the Princess, saying that she had “supermodel beauty”.
Stern asked: “You could’ve nailed her, right?”
Trump replied: “I think I could’ve.”
“I only have one regret in the women department—that I never had the opportunity to court Lady Diana Spencer,” Trump wrote in his 1997 book The Art of the Comeback.
Three years later, Trump had put Diana on his top-10-woman-he’d-like-to-sleep-with list. It sure is a distasteful thing, but the former President indeed had one of those.
Trump said he would have slept with Diana “without even hesitation”. He added: “She was crazy, but those are minor details.”
Trump declined romantic pursuit
Diana and Donald Trump didn’t ever have a relationship, but the former President sure seems to have been interested in the Princess.
In 2016, however, Trump denied that he romantically pursued Princess Diana in an interview with Piers Morgan.
“There was a flurry of stories recently that you’d had a little frisson [romantic interest] for Princess Diana,” Piers Morgan said, as reported by NBC.
Trump answered, saying that it was “totally false”, while adding he “thought she was lovely” when the pair met in New York.
On July 1, a new statue of Princess Diana will be unveiled in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace. That date will mark what would have been Princess Diana’s 60th birthday.
New Diana statue in UK
Her sons, Harry and William, are set to be there to unveil the statue of their mother, who was loved by an entire nation. The brothers commissioned the statue in 2017 to mark the 20th anniversary of their mother’s passing. It was to “recognize her positive impact,” Harry and William said.
They hope the permanent sculpture will help all those who visited Kensington Palace to “reflect on her life and her legacy”.
“Our mother touched so many lives,” they said.
Princess Diana will forever live on in our thoughts. It was such a tragedy when she passed away – but hopefully, her legacy will never fade away.
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