Czechs catching up with West, says Ivana Trump on rare visit to Prague
Ivana Trump is one of the best known, and wealthiest, Czechs in the world. A member of Czechoslovakia's skiing team at the beginning of the 1970s, she later became a model, before marriage to American property tycoon Donald Trump brought her huge international fame. Now Ivana Trump is back in the Czech Republic, where she is due to take part in a business awards ceremony this weekend. I asked Ivana Trump, who had her mother by her side, if she often comes home.
You left many years ago - how do you find speaking Czech after all these years?
"You saw me [just now]...I understand absolutely everything but there are certain words which 30 years ago did not exist and which I have to use now. So I'm not sure if you have new words, so I just use English words because it's convenient."
Do you maintain strong ties with the Czech Republic?
"Definitely. I have a lot of friends here. Like I said I come here, I have a lot of friends."
How do you perceive the changes when you come back here every time? Does it seem more modern to you, more Western?
"Absolutely. People here speak all kinds of languages. We didn't have a chance before because we had to speak Czech and Russian and that was that.
"I can see all the restoration and all the construction which is going on around Prague, and I think it looks fabulous."
"I think they have. Young people are in jeans and blazers and all that, but that's cool, that's what we wear in the West. I see the fabulous boutiques which are here, so I think you are very much au courant."
Your mother is here. Does she often visit you in the States or elsewhere in the world?
"Well, my mom is with me 'at the hip' pretty much all the time. She's in America probably eight months a year. And then she comes back to see her friends."
You said just now you're going to be a "glammother" [her son has just got married] - what do you mean by that?
"Glam is glamorous. Instead of a grandmother I'm going to be a...glamorous grandmother!"
