MARLA MAPLES

Donald and I still really wanted to be together, but I was fighting to keep what we had privately, and once the world gets involved in your life, little by little it breaks it down until you forget what it was in the first place.

When I was 18, I joined the Screen Actors Guild, and after college I came to New York.

I look back at old photographs and videotapes, and I go, Who was I trying to be? Who was I doing this for?

When that man wants something, he'll stop at nothing to get it. And I also believed in the good of him.

This relationship is going to be built on trust.

What was a really private and nice relationship was judged and made to be something ugly.

I was homecoming queen. I was star of my basketball team.

Tiffany is very proud to have the last name and she's proud of her dad.

I don't think he cheated on me. During the marriage, I think he was there.

I have a little baby. She knows who I am. My friends know. My family knows.

I finally said, I can't live being carried by this wake.

He's part of the product and will make no bones about creating that image to bring the value up in his product, bring the value up in everything he touches.

I'm not a big believer in a thing called luck. I believe it has a lot to do with fate and just really having a vision of the way you would see your life.

I met Donald Trump in '85. I ran into him several times throughout the years. We knew we had this connection, but it wasn't appropriate timing. So we'd spend a lot of time on the telephone. By '88, I knew I truly loved this guy.

I was made to believe there was a plan in place for ending Donald's previous marriage. I pulled away because I wanted to allow him the time to deal with his wife.

My personal life was fair game. And that's what hurt me.

I think what he loved about me the most was that I wasn't part of that world. But once we were together publicly, he wanted to change me into that social animal.

Every story was being made up. My true friends weren't the ones speaking. It was people who never knew me, making up stories. Even my local paper put a $1,000 bounty out for information about my whereabouts.

He works his business and manipulates and keeps himself in front of the world.

I've always modeled myself after Ginger.

I was holding a reserve inside all along. When you're with someone as powerful as Donald, you have no choice. You can get lost within that power if you're not careful.

I went to work. That was a turning point. When you have to do eight shows a week and your name is on the marquee, no matter what is going on at home or what's on the cover of the newspapers, you've got to do your job.

When we separated, I did not want to get in a slugfest. I had to take the high ground.

If we could have somehow stayed away from the public and the press, it might have been different, but every private issue seemed to be played out on the front page.

I'm happy to have had everything healed. We're fine.