The death of Ivana Trump is a shock and a surprise to everyone who knew her.

Friends say Ivana was packing to leave for the South of France. She was getting ready to leave for St. Tropez for the first time in at least three years.

Not that she was a recluse. Ivana, like all of us, had been prevented from traveling by COVID.

But the third week in July is the big one in St. Tropez. That’s when all the jet setters arrive and party. Ivana was a veteran of this crowd, which would include Europeans, South Americans, and all the beautiful people of wealth. At 73, she was still part of the in crowd. If Ivana had shown up, it was like royalty. Her death will cast a pall over the fun (although my guess is it will go on in her memory).

The bigger question is why was she alone in her townhouse? She had no aide present. “That’s the way she wanted it.,” says a friend. A coroner’s report will shed some light on why she fell down her magnificent staircase, whether it was a heart attack or if she tripped. It doesn’t really matter, what’s done is done.

But Ivana was fragile the last few weeks. She’d been photographed outside with an aide. Yesterday she was alone in a house that writer Phoebe Eaton described on Facebook as the magnificent kind from a romance novel. With three children and all those grandchildren, Ivana died alone. That’s a little hard to understand.

And Donald Trump’s carefully worded statement of grief? Don’t buy a word of it. He cheated on her like crazy until he had an affair — with Marla Maples — that was exposed. He tried to humiliate Ivana in front of the world. It was Donald who planted the “best sex I ever had” headline at the New York Post, not Marla. Let’s not forget that.

Back in 2016, I reminisced with the late great mega columnist Liz Smith about Ivana, Donald, and Marla.

It was 1990. Donald was caught with Marla Maples. Ivana filed for divorce. Cindy Adams got custody of Donald. Liz took Ivana Trump to lunch and wound up on the front page of the Daily News.

Liz told me over lunch:

“Parker Ladd and Arnold Scaasi said, ‘You should go meet the Trumps.’ I said, ‘What are the Trumps?’ They said, ‘They’re very rich and aspiring to rise, and they will love you, and you will get a lot of money for charity.’ So he introduces me. Then I hang around with them for about a year. I liked her, but I couldn’t understand a word she ever said. I liked him because he reminded me of my brothers. I was amused by him. He would take me under the arm and introduce me to famous people. He’d say, ‘Isn’t she the greatest?’ He took me to prizefights and all this crap. I gave them their money’s worth, and I flew on their plane.

I realized he thought he owned me. He didn’t own me. But everything for journalists is access.”

She wrote in her memoir: “I liked the Trumps. They had three little kids, and I didn’t want to be the one to notify Ivana that her husband was playing around. It just wasn’t my style. I figured my warning shot would bring Donald to his senses. (Such fools we scriveners be.)”

Donald called Cindy Adams and planted the famous “Best Sex I Ever Had” headline in the Post. Ivana struck back. She let Liz take her to lunch at the famous Le Grenouille on East 52nd St. Pandemonium ensued. Liz and Ivana wound up on the front page of the Daily News.

Trump was furious. Liz recalled: “He’s one of the great public actors of all time…He said he would buy the New York Daily News in order to fire me.“

The Trump divorce played on the front pages of the New York tabloids for weeks. And in the end, Ivana got the last laugh. She produced best selling books. went into business and sold many products. She didn’t let public humiliation destroy her. Now let’s see if her story is white washed in her death.

I’m very saddened to hear that Ivana Trump has died at age 73. News headlines are describing her as “Donald Trump’s first wife.” She was far more than that.

Ivana was scandalized by Donald’s affair with Marla Maples in 1992. She was an integral part of Donald’s business world, tasked with among other things renovating the Plaza Hotel from top to bottom.

She did not take Donald’s inconsideration of her lightly. She wrote books and became an entrepreneur. For years when Donald was swallowed by insolvency and then another divorce, from Maples, Ivana held her head high.

She was unlucky in romance. Her next two relationships had tragic endings. Her companion of many years, Roffredo Gaettano, died in a racing accident. She garnered two more husbands, and each marriage ended in discord and divorce.

Reports say Ivana had a sudden heart attack today. There are other reports that she was seen with an aide or attendant last month. There is no question that Ivana was fragile. I saw her many times over the last few years before the pandemic. She had a drinking problem, that was clear to anyone who was near her. She was not living an independent life. When I saw her in May 2019, she told me she was spending much of her time living with her daughter Ivanka’s family in a house on the grounds of Donald’s Bedminster, New Jersey golf club,

Don’t let Donald’s weepy posting to social media make you think they were friends. Ivana ripped Donald in her memoirs, which are probably not in print but can be Googled. She made many allegations against him that were unpleasant and undoubtedly true. Her death is tragic because she was a sweet woman who tried to do battle with a rattle snake. For a while, at least, she was head in that competition.