by - Trump did a Pizza Hut commercial with ex-wife Ivana in 1995 to promote stuffed crust pies.
- Trump didn’t tell his new wife, Marla Maples, about the ad until afterward.
- According to a new book, Maples “pulled her fucking guts out.”
If it weren’t for Donald Trump and his ex-wife Ivana Trump, Pizza Hut’s stuffed crust might have landed in the fast food graveyard next to the crust of the chain’s hot dog bites. Instead, a commercial featuring the divorced Trumps helped turn the cheesy crust into a multimillion-dollar business.
But the whole thing made Marla Maples sick.
According to “Confidence Man,” a new book released Tuesday by New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, Maples erupted when Donald Trump told her he had shot the ad. She was married to Donald Trump for about two years and they had a daughter, Tiffany.
At the time of the Pizza-Hut ad, Donald Trump and Ivana Trump had finalized their divorce a few years earlier, but their post-nuptial spat was constantly making headlines. Ivana Trump was furious about her ex-husband’s relationship with Maples and the two were known to hate each other.
But they still came together to shoot a cheeky commercial. It hinted at a tryst between Trump and his ex-wife, with the couple saying it’s “wrong” but “feels so right.” After a pause, the two agree to a “deal” and pull out a pizza box agreeing to “eat our pizza the wrong way”, meaning crust first.
They then joked about their divorce, with Ivana Trump reaching for the pizza box and asking, “Can I have the last slice?”
“Actually,” says Donald Trump in the commercial, “he’s only half right.”
Donald Trump, who was 49 at the time, had filmed the Pizza Hut commercial at Trump Tower while Maples was away at Mar-a-Lago. The room where the ad was filmed was made to look like the interior of the Plaza Hotel.
On the day Trump filmed his ad, he told Nick Ribis, the casino empire’s chief executive, and consultant Alan Marcus about it. Ribis had noticed that Trump had makeup on his face and asked about it.
“It’s really cute,” Donald Trump told Marcus and Ribis about the ad. “It’s me and Ivana. And we’re sharing a pizza. I’m in black tie, she’s in a dress, and we’re fighting over the last piece.”
Marcus tried to correct Trump, asking if he had misspoken and had actually filmed the commercial with Maples.
Donald Trump confirmed that he had filmed the commercial with Ivana Trump and said that Pizza Hut paid him $500,000 for the slot. He hadn’t told Maples, and Marcus recommended that he do so.
After coming clean to his wife, Trump revealed to Marcus and Ribis that it didn’t go well.
“Poor child,” he said. “I started telling her and she got sick. She said she had to go.”
Donald Trump’s voice, according to Haberman’s book, “turned into a nasal falsetto.” He said Maples told him he needed to “get her fucking guts out.”
Donald Trump and Maples divorced in 1999 and in 2005 he married his current wife Melania Trump. Ivana Trump died in July.
