Marla Maples

Marla Ann Maples was born on October 27, 1963, in Cohutta, Georgia, and grew up in the nearby city of Dalton. Her mother, Ann Locklear Maples, worked as a homemaker and model, while her father, Stanley Edward Maples, pursued careers as a real estate developer, county commissioner, singer, and songwriter. Maples has one half-sister from her father's previous marriage. She attended Northwest Whitfield High School in Tunnel Hill, Georgia, where she played basketball, held the position of class secretary, and was named homecoming queen for the 1980–1981 school year. Following her 1981 graduation, she enrolled at the University of Georgia but left before completing her degree.

Maples pursued modeling and pageant competition in the early 1980s. She won the Miss Resaca Beach Poster Girl Contest in 1983, placed as runner-up in the Miss Georgia USA competition in 1984, and won Miss Hawaiian Tropic in 1985. Her screen career began with an appearance in the 1986 film Maximum Overdrive. She subsequently appeared in Executive Decision (1996), For Richer or Poorer (1997), Happiness (1998), Richie Rich's Christmas Wish (1998), Black and White (1999), Two of Hearts (1999), Loving Annabelle (2006), A Christmas Too Many (2007), and A Nanny for Christmas (2010). On television, she made a cameo appearance at WWF WrestleMania VII in 1991 as special guest timekeeper for the main event between Hulk Hogan and Sgt. Slaughter, and that same year appeared as herself in an episode of Designing Women. In 1994, she and then-husband Donald Trump made a cameo in the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air episode "For Sale by Owner," and she appeared in the television series Something Wilder. Maples co-hosted the 1996 and 1997 Miss Universe Pageant and the 1997 Miss USA Pageant, both owned at the time by Trump.

In August 1992, Maples joined the Broadway cast of The Will Rogers Follies, the Tony Award-winning musical, taking on the role of "Ziegfeld's Favorite." That role had been originated by Cady Huffman when the production opened in May 1991. In 2011, Maples returned to New York theater with Love, Loss and What I Wore, an off-Broadway production.

Maples hosted a talk radio program called Awakening with Marla on Contact Talk Radio, featuring guests including naturopathic doctors, authors, and astrologers. In December 2012, she received a Hollywood Music in Media Award for best New Age/Ambient song for "House of Love." Her album The Endless, released in August 2013, incorporated contributions from figures including the Dalai Lama, Michael Beckwith, and Deepak Chopra. In 2013, she was also featured on Oprah: Where Are They Now. On March 8, 2016, Maples was announced as a competitor on season 22 of Dancing with the Stars, partnered with professional dancer Tony Dovolani. She and Dovolani were eliminated in Week 4, finishing in tenth place. She appeared as a guest co-host on The View on March 11, 2016. Maples has also appeared in the film Switching Lanes, directed by Thomas Mikal Ford, and makes personalized videos through the platform Cameo. She serves as a keynote speaker with the London Speakers Bureau, with a focus on women, wellness, spirituality, and motivation, and has spoken at events including the 2018 Global Summit on Science, Spirituality, and Environment in India and the Summer of Peace Summit 2018.

In 1990, Maples starred in an advertising campaign for No Excuses jeans. In 1993, she designed a maternity clothing line sold in major department stores. A memoir titled All That Glitters Is Not Gold was announced in January 2000 through the ReganBooks division of HarperCollins Publishers, but in February 2002 a spokeswoman confirmed that the author and publisher had mutually agreed not to publish the book.

Maples first met Donald Trump in 1984, during his marriage to his first wife, Ivana, whom Trump divorced in 1990. Maples and Trump's daughter, Tiffany Trump, was born on October 13, 1993. The couple married on December 20, 1993, at New York's Plaza Hotel in a ceremony reportedly attended by approximately 1,000 guests. They separated in May 1997 and divorced on June 8, 1999. The terms of their divorce settlement include a confidentiality agreement binding Maples regarding their marriage.

Among her philanthropic commitments, Maples is a vocal advocate for Kids Creating Peace, an organization that brings together Israeli and Palestinian children. She serves as an advisory board member of AWARENYC.org, a grassroots organization focused on improving the lives of women and girls in New York City and globally, and sits on the Steering Committee for the Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine.