A 99-year-old Czech immigrant is living in Ivanka Trump's Florida home right now – and she's still winning game night.
Ivanka just told the world exactly who raised her, and it wasn't who the press always pretended it was.
What she said about bringing Grandma Babi home will hit every person who has ever faced that decision.
How Ivanka Trump's Czech Grandmother Raised the Trump Children While Ivana Built an Empire
Most people knew Ivana Trump as the glamorous ex-wife of a real estate mogul.
What they missed was the quiet Czech grandmother working in the background – cooking every meal, raising three kids, building the foundation that made everything else possible.
Ivanka Trump sat down with Steven Bartlett on The Diary of a CEO this week for a rare 90-minute interview, and she made something crystal clear.
Her grandmother Marie Zelníčková – "Grandma Babi" to the family – didn't just visit.
She raised them.
"My grandmother and grandfather on my mother's side really raised us," Ivanka said.
https://twitter.com/CieloBonit/status/2042412107564511268?s=20
She called her grandmother "unbelievably nurturing" and described a woman who expressed love through food, through stories, through showing up every single day without fanfare or credit.
Why Ivanka Trump Has Her 99 Year Old Grandmother Living With Her in Florida
She came from Czechoslovakia – the real one, before the Communists renamed the cities and told everyone what to think.
She raised a daughter who broke into New York's elite real estate world at a time when women weren't supposed to be in boardrooms at all.
And now she lives in Florida, under Ivanka's roof.
Not in a nursing home.
Not in an assisted living facility where strangers hand you pills and check on you twice a day.
In her granddaughter's home.
"For me and my children to have the experience of being there for her in just a small fraction of the way that she was there for me is such an extraordinary privilege," Ivanka said.
She wasn't performing for the camera.
She asked for a tissue twice during the interview.
She paused to compose herself talking about her mother, Ivana, who died in 2022 after a fall at her New York City home.
She talked about watching her father get shot in Butler, Pennsylvania – sitting poolside at Bedminster with two of her children, watching it unfold on live television.
https://twitter.com/LauraLoomer/status/2042466865662857723?s=20
She talked about Jared Kushner's thyroid cancer – diagnosed during the first term, operated on twice, the second surgery coming after they'd left the White House.
None of it was produced.
It was a woman talking about the last several years of her life – the losses, the fear, the decision to step back from politics entirely.
What Ivanka Trump Said on the Diary of a CEO That the Press Refused to Cover
The press spent years building a caricature of the Trump family.
Cold. Transactional. Loyal only to power.
What Ivanka described this week was something entirely different.
A Czech immigrant grandmother playing Jenga with her great-grandchildren in Miami and still winning.
A daughter who chose to leave Washington at the height of her influence because she wanted to be present for her kids.
https://twitter.com/johnnymaga/status/2042279270370660605?s=20
A family that keeps Ivana's memory alive in their home – telling the grandchildren stories about a woman they'll never get to know.
Ivanka said her father never once failed to pick up her calls, no matter how big the moment.
"There was never a doubt in my mind that I was his top priority and that he was available to me."
That's the story that doesn't get covered.
The grandmother who cooked every meal.
The daughter who brought her home.
The family that actually shows up.
Sources:
- Ashley J. DiMella, "Ivanka Trump reveals surprising new living arrangement with her grandmother in Florida," Fox News, April 12, 2026.
- "Ivanka Trump Opens Up on Mother's Death, Butler Shooting," Patriot News Alerts, April 11, 2026.
- "Diary of a CEO with Ivanka Trump (Transcript)," The Singju Post, April 9, 2026.
- Ivanka Trump, "Ivanka Trump just revealed she's been living with her grandma in Miami," Hola, October 2023.
