Ivana Trump seemed ‘happy and healthy’ in the weeks before she died, her friends have revealed, as they expressed shock at her passing aged 73.
The ex-wife of the former president appeared ‘terrific’ and ‘in good spirits’ three weeks ago, the owner of her favorite restaurant told DailyMail.com.
Atilla Cetin, general manager at the Italian restaurant Nello, a block from the Upper East Side townhouse, fought back tears as he said he regretted not visiting her before she died.
Staff at her local salon, which she regularly visited, also expressed disbelief at the news, saying she looked very healthy as she prepared for a vacation in St Tropez.
Ivana died at the age of 73 after being found ‘unconscious and unresponsive’ in her New York City townhouse, hours before she had a hair salon appointment.
The socialite was found at the bottom of a set of stairs in her Manhattan home shortly before 1pm on Thursday by a staff member arriving at the residence, and investigators she may have fallen.
Atilla Cetin, general manager at the Italian restaurant Nello, just a block from the Upper East Side townhouse where Ivana was found dead, said she looked in good spirits when he last saw her three weeks ago.He would often walk her home after she dined
Fatih Cakirca, 49, brother of the owner of Salih Salon where Ivana was a regular for the last 20 years, told DailyMail.com that the staff at the salon was also in disbelief at Ivana’s passing as she looked very healthy and was preparing for a vacation in St.Tropez
Cetin shows how Ivana had texted him a DailyMail.com article picturing him walking her home in May
Where she used to sit: Cetin said he had walked past her apartment July 14 and briefly thought about checking in on her, but ultimately didn’t.He told DailyMail.com he wished he could’ve had a last conversation with Ivana
Ivana had scheduled a hair appointment in preparation for her trip to St.Tropez at Salih Salon
Nello manager Cetin, 42, told DailyMail.com: ‘She was so wonderful. [To us] she was our First Lady. Even when she was walking to the restaurant and people would want to take a picture with her or talk to her, she never refused anyone.She was always so polite, so amazing.’
Cetin said he had walked past her apartment on Wednesday and briefly thought about checking in on her, but ultimately didn’t.
‘I should come by because I hadn’t seen her in a while.I wish I had, but I didn’t want to bother her,’ Cetin told DailyMail.com, before showing how Ivana had texted him a DailyMail.com article picturing him walking her home in May.
Ivana was found ‘unconscious and unresponsive’ after reportedly suffering a cardiac arrest in her home on the same day she was set to have her weekly hair appointment at Salih Salon. She had been a regular at the salon for the 20 years.
Cetin, said Ivana looked in good health the last time he had seen her.He said she would frequent the restaurant ‘twice a week,’ or sometimes three or four times a month.
He showed DailyMail.com pictures of Ivana and Donald Trump on the restaurant’s celebrity wall.
The two developed a close relationship during Cetin’s last eight years at the restaurant, and he would often find himself laughing while talking with Ivana as he walked her home after she dined.
Most of the time, however, Cetin said Ivana visited the restaurant with friends, politicians and designers. The manager said Ivana would usually get the Ossobuco, a cross-cut veal dish braised with vegetables.
‘How she talked, how she walked … she looked like she was born in a castle.I can’t believe it, because she looked so healthy,’ Cetin said.
‘I would walk her to her house and boostprotech she never complained about anything bothering her. Still, now, I want to walk there and ask, »are you guys sure that it is her who died?»’
Ivana is seen in 2016 with her regular hairdresser Salih Cakirca.Her salon said that she missed an appointment on Thursday, the same day she was found dead in her townhouse
Cetin showed DailyMail.com pictures of Ivana and Donald Trump on the restaurant’s celebrity wall
One of the pictures showed Ivana dining at the restaurant many years ago
Nello manager Atella Cetin, said Ivana looked in good health the last time he had seen her.He said she would frequent the restaurant ‘ twice a week,’ or sometimes three or four times a month
Meanwhile Fatih Cakirca, 49, brother of salon owner, Salih, told DailyMail.com that the staff at the salon was also in disbelief at Ivana’s passing as she looked very healthy and was preparing for a vacation in St Tropez.
‘My brother [has done her hair] for 20 years.I’ve also known her for 20 years. She was a very nice lady, we’re shocked and sad. She had an appointment today at 2 p.m. and the housekeeper just canceled,’ Cakirca said.
Ivana had also scheduled a hair appointment in preparation for her trip to St Tropez at Salih Salon.
‘I know she was going to St Tropez until September.I just saw her last Friday, she came to the salon, I did her hair. She was great, nothing wrong with her,’ Fatih Carkica told DailyMail.com
‘She looked very healthy and happy. She was a very lovely lady …. Very friendly.’
Cakirca said that Ivana’s on-again, off-again boyfriend Rossano Rubicondi, who passed away last year, would also get her hair cut at the salon.
Rubicondi, an Italian actor, was battling liver cancer and suffered a lung aneurysm in the bathtub in October.
Ivana and Rossano dated for six years before they tied the knot in 2008 during a lavish $3 million ceremony at Mar-A-Lago, the Palm Beach estate owned by her second ex-husband, Donald Trump. She was 59 at the time, while he was 36.
A bouquet of flowers left outside Ivana’s home in the Upper East Side
Ivana Trump passed away at the age of 73 of a suspected cardiac arrest after being found ‘unconscious and unresponsive at the bottom of a set of stairs in her apartment’.She was last pictured (above) on June 22 in New York City
Ivana’s youngest child Eric, 38, was seen outside his mother’s New York home on Thursday afternoon shortly after the news of her death broke.He issued a statement to DailyMail.com in the wake of Ivana’s passing, praising her as an ‘incredible woman’
Ivana was found at the bottom of a set of stairs in her Manhattan home shortly before 1pm on Thursday by a staff member arriving at the residence, and investigators she may have fallen, possibly after suffering a medical episode.An official cause of death has yet to be confirmed.
‘It’s been a very sad day, a very sad day,’ Eric Trump said as he left his mother’s Upper East Side home near Central Park.
Ivana spent her final days preparing for a long-awaited getaway to St.Tropez on Friday, and had planned a visit to her usual hair stylist on the day she was found dead, an employee at the salon told DailyMail.com.
News of Ivana’s death was first shared by Trump, via a post on his Truth Social account on Thursday afternoon.
‘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,’ he wrote.
Trump shared three children with his ex-wife, whom he married in 1977 and divorced in 1992, and went on to pay tribute to Ivana, describing her as a ‘beautiful, amazing’ woman, while honoring her close bond with their children together: Donald Jr, Eric, and Ivanka.
Eric was joined by his wife Lara Trump, 39, who kept her face shielded with large sunglasses as she made her way out of her late mother-in-law’s home
The youngest child of Donald and Ivana Trump was seen climbing into a waiting vehicle outside of the townhouse where his mother was found dead
Ivan’s Yorkshire Terrier, named Tiger, is seen being brought out of her townhouse following her death
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