Ivanka Trump broke down in tears revealing she sought professional mental health help after her mother Ivana’s sudden death.
The first daughter, 44, spoke on the Diary of a CEO podcast about her grief that her three children never got to know their grandmother and said she would ‘talk about her and start to cry, just like I’m still doing – but in a different way, like I was avoiding.’
She sought therapy after a devastating period in which her husband Jared Kushner underwent a second cancer surgery and Ivana died within weeks of each other.
‘I wanted to make sure I’m really good at being tough,’ Ivanka said.
Ivanka wept as she described how her grandmother, Babi, 99, now lives with the family in Miami. ‘It’s a blessing to have her in our home,’ she said, ‘telling her stories and stories of my mother, who they sadly didn’t get to know.’
‘Losing a parent – it hits different,’ she added, ‘especially unexpectedly, especially post-COVID because it robbed us of so many years.’
Ivana, 73, was found unconscious at the bottom of the stairs at her Manhattan home and died that same day in July 2022 – Ivanka was living in Washington DC at the time.
Kushner had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer while working in the White House in 2019, and underwent a second surgery in August 2022.
Ivana, who married Donald Trump in 1977, was born in what is now the Czech Republic and built a high-profile career as a model and businesswoman in New York.
She and Donald had three children together – Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric – before divorcing in 1992.
Ivanka also discussed watching ‘in real time’ the harrowing assassination attempt on Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024.
‘I was horrified and I was scared, and I was protective of my children,’ she said.
Ivanka said she somehow sensed her father would pull through as she watched Secret Service agents haul him to the ground after a bullet grazed his ear.
‘I didn’t believe that the worst possible outcome had transpired thank God,’ Ivanka said. ‘And thank God, it hadn’t.’
She said she saw him at around 2am as he returned from hospital to his Bedminster estate in New Jersey.
‘You can’t take things for granted in this life, and I’ve learned that in numerous ways,’ Ivanka added.
She said she bore no hatred for those who had tried to harm her father – a second gunman attempted to shoot Trump at his golf club in Florida just months later.
‘What does that accomplish being negative towards the world?’ Ivanka said. ‘There’s a lot of sickness, and I think that forgiveness is a difficult thing but – his living was a blessing.’
Ivanka has rarely given interviews since stepping back from politics in 2022, keeping a low profile as she focused on family life.
Her husband remains a prominent figure as Trump’s peace envoy in the Middle East, currently leading negotiations with Iran alongside Vice President JD Vance and Steve Witkoff.
Ivanka said the couple’s three children children have been her priority as she built a quieter life away from the White House spotlight.
Her last major interview came on Lex Fridman’s podcast on July 2, 2024, where she discussed her decision to step back from politics – just 11 days before her father was shot in Butler.
