NEW YORK -- The Battle of the Trumps took another bizarre twist when a man who claimed to be Ivana Trump's ex-husband offered to his story 'to the highest bidder,' the New York Post reported Saturday.
Alfred Winklmayr, 44, wed Ivana in 1971 so that she could obtain a passport and flee her native Czechoslavakia, the Post said. The marriage lasted just two years and was apparently never consumated.
'Yes, I was married to Ivana,' said a man who telephoned the Post claiming to be Winklymayr. 'I'm confirming that. I'll be selling my story on the open market.'
The Austrian businessman, who said he now lives in Sydney, Australia, with his wife, declined to say how much he would ask for the rights to his story, but said he hired a lawyer to negotiate for him.
A Post story Friday, headlined 'Ivana's Dark Past,' reported the former brunette model and competitive skier hid episodes of her past that could have tarnished the Trump image. The story was based partially on reports in the London Sun and the London Daily Mail.
The article also said her estranged husband was 'stunned' at Ivana's deceptions.
Ivana on Wednesday publicly revealed for the first time an earlier marriage to a man the Sun said died two years after the wedding.
Michael Kennedy, Ivana's attorney, sent a letter to Post Editor Jerry Nachman accusing the newspaper of printing inaccuracies about his client's upbringing, parents, educational background and romantic history.
Kennedy said the story, published Friday, was 'false and malicious' and called for it to be corrected immediately, but the attorney did not threaten legal action.
'Your failure to correct this damage to Mrs. Trump's character will be dealt with accordingly,' Kennedy said.
Nachman dismissed the letter as a public relations ploy and defended his newspaper's reporting as fair.
Meanwhile, a local television station reported that Donald Trump has dashed hopes of a reconciliation by invoking the terms of a well-publicized pre-nuptial agreement that provides Ivana with $25 million and a Connecticut mansion.
Trump sent his wife at least two maintenance checks, as called for in their pre-nuptial agreement, a television report said Friday.
But Ivana became distraught when she received the checks and returned them to the billionare real estate magnate, the station said.
It was not known how much the checks were worth.
