Michael Campbell, Gene Lofaro, Janet Lyons, Charlie Mieismer and Dennis Berger with Ivana and Donald Trump
Michael Campbell
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 commercial until after.
Maples reportedly “puked her fucking guts out,” according to a new book.
Had it not been for Donald Trump and his ex-wife Ivana Trump, Pizza Hut’s stuffed-crust may have landed in the fast-food graveyard alongside the chain’s hot-dog bites crust. Instead, a commercial by the divorced Trumps helped turn the cheesy crust into a multi-million dollar business.
But the whole thing made Marla Maples sick.
According to “Confidence Man” a new book out Tuesday by New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, Maples threw up when Donald Trump told her he’d filmed the commercial. She’d been married to Donald Trump for roughly two years and they shared a daughter, Tiffany.
At the time of the Pizza-Hut commercial, Donald Trump and Ivana Trump had finalized their divorce a few years earlier, but their post-marital sparring constantly made headlines. Ivana Trump was furious about her ex-husband’s affair with Maples, and the two were known to loathe each other.
But they still came together to film 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 whip out a pizza box agreeing to “eat our pizza the wrong way,” meaning crust first.
They then poked fun at their divorce, with Ivana Trump reaching for the pizza box and asking, “May I have the last slice?”
“Actually,” Donald Trump says in the commercial, “you’re only entitled to half.”
Donald Trump, who was 49 at the time, had filmed the Pizza Hut commercial in Trump Tower while Maples was away at Mar-a-Lago. The room where the commercial was filmed was made to look like the insider of the Plaza Hotel.
The day Trump filmed his commercial, he told Nick Ribis, chief executive of the casino empire, and consultant Alan Marcus about it. Ribis had noticed that Trump had makeup on his face, and inquired about it.
“It’s really cute,” Donald Trump told Marcus and Ribis about the commercial. “It’s me and Ivana. And we’re sharing a pizza. I’m in black tie, she’s in a gown, and we’re fighting over the last piece.”
Marcus tried to correct Trump, asking whether he had misspoken and had actually filmed the commercial with Maples.
Donald Trump confirmed that he’d filmed the commercial with Ivana Trump, and said Pizza Hut payed him $500,000 for the slot. He had not told Maples, and Marcus recommended he do so.
After coming clean to his wife, Trump disclosed to Marcus and Ribis that it didn’t go well.
“The poor kid,” he said. “I started to tell her and she got sick. She said she had to go.”
Donald Trump’s voice, according to Haberman’s book, “turned to a nasal falsetto.” He said Maples told him she had to “puke her fucking guts out.”
Donald Trump and Maples divorced in 1999 and in 2005 he married his current wife Melania Trump. Ivana Trump passed away in July.