Ivana Trump, the first wife of Donald Trump, has died at the age of 73, the former US president has said.
"I am very saddened to inform all of those that loved her, of which there are many, that Ivana Trump has passed away at her home in New York City," the former US president said in a post on the social media platform Truth Social.
The couple divorced in 1992. They had three children together: Donald Jr, Ivanka and Eric.
The Fire Department of New York said in a statement that paramedics responded to a call for cardiac arrest and found a 73-year-old woman dead in the Upper East Side apartment where Ms Trump lived.
The incident took place at around 12.39pm this afternoon.
"Ivana Trump was a survivor. She fled from communism and embraced this country. She taught her children about grit and toughness, compassion and determination," the Trump family said in a statement quoted by ABC News.
Born Ivana Zelnickova, she grew up in Gottwaldov, Czechoslovakia, a town near Prague that is now known as Zlin, according to her biography posted by CMG Worldwide, a business agency for celebrities that represented her.
She spent much of her youth in competitive skiing for the Czechoslovakian national system, later competing for Charles University in Prague, where she earned a master's degree in physical education and languages, the CMG biography said.
After university, she followed her love interest at the time, professional skier George Syrovatka, to Canada, and later began modelling for the Audrey Morris agency in Montreal, CMG said.
While on a modelling trip to New York in 1976, she met Mr Trump, CMG said, and they were married nine months later.
Ivana Trump played a role in building up the Trump media image in the 1980s, when they were one of New York City's most prominent power couples.
While Mr Trump took the credit for his early success breaking into the highly competitive Manhattan real estate market, Ms Trump also filled an important role in the family business soon after their marriage, the New York Times reported.
Their divorce came after Mr Trump's highly publicised affair with Marla Maples.
A New York judge cited "cruel and inhuman treatment" by Mr Trump in granting Ms Trump's request for divorce.
She appeared in the 1996 film 'First Wives Club,' in which she tells three women whose husbands dumped them for younger women, "Don't get mad. Get everything".
In her divorce settlement, Ms Trump received $14 million plus $650,000 per year to support their three children, a 45-room mansion in Connecticut, an apartment in Trump Plaza, and use of the Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida for one month a year, the New York Times reported.
Ms Trump is survived by her mother, her three children and 10 grandchildren, the family statement said.
She married three other times, including once before she met Mr Trump, in what she described as a Cold War marriage to obtain an Austrian passport. Her two later marriages also ended in divorce.
