Brian Snyder/Reuters
- Vanessa Haydon Trump, Donald Trump Jr.'s estranged wife, reportedly lied about her high school romance with an alleged gangster when confronted by her then-soon-to-be father-in-law, Donald Trump.
- When Vanessa was 15, she dated a low-level member of the Latin Kings gang, Valentin Rivera, according to friends of Vanessa's and Rivera himself.
- When Trump questioned Vanessa about the relationship shortly before she married his son, she denied it ever happened, according to GQ.
Vanessa Haydon Trump, Donald Trump Jr.'s estranged wife, reportedly lied about her high school romance with an alleged gangster when confronted by her then-soon-to-be father-in-law, Donald Trump.
When Vanessa was 15, she dated a low-level member of the Latin Kings gang, Valentin Rivera, according to friends of Vanessa's and Rivera himself. Shortly before Vanessa married Trump's eldest son, the real-estate mogul pulled her into his office to ask her about her relationship with Rivera. Vanessa denied it ever happened, GQ reported.
Rivera detailed the couple's high school relationship in a recent interview with The New York Post.
"She talked with an urban, gangster accent," a friend of Vanessa's told GQ. "She wore big hoop earrings, hair slicked back. She thought she was a gangster. She had a gangster boyfriend, and she acted like a gangster herself. She was somebody who went out of her way to intimidate people by having a scary boyfriend that could hurt people."
Vanessa visited Rivera on at Rikers Island after he was jailed on assault charges.
"She was heartbroken that I was being taken away," Rivera told The Post of Vanessa's reaction to his arrest. "The first time [she came to visit], she was upset - she cried a little bit - but after a while, we get used to things. She only came to visit me twice because her mother forbid her from coming to visit me."
The two dated for five years, Rivera said - until Vanessa, at that point a model, cheated on him with actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
Trump filed for divorce from Donald Jr. in March, and his alleged affair with singer Aubrey O'Day became public shortly thereafter.