NEW YORK _ Ivana Trump doubled down on her claim that she is the real "first lady" while promoting her new book on "The Wendy Williams Show" Friday.
"Well, I tell you, I am technically first lady Trump. I was first wife," Trump said, throwing her hands up in the air.
"I don't know what Melania's problem is," she added. "She just has to get over it. She is first lady of America, but I am first lady Trump."
The feud between President Donald Trump's first wife and first lady Melania Trump began Monday when Ivana told ABC's "Good Morning America" that she regularly speaks to the president at the White House.
"I don't want to call him there because Melania is there and I don't want to cause any kind of jealousy or something like that because I'm basically first Trump wife. I'm first lady, OK?" she said.
The first lady's spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham slammed the remarks, saying there was "clearly no substance to this statement from an ex." She called it "attention-seeking and self-serving noise."
"Mrs. Trump has made the White House a home for Barron and the president. She loves living in Washington, D.C., and is honored by her role as first lady of the United States," Grisham said.
Ivana Trump said she was caught off guard by the first lady's statement.
"I have no idea why she did it," she said. "Because I never said I am first lady of America. Better her than me, frankly."
Ivana Trump is promoting he new memoir, "Raising Trump," about growing up in communist Czechoslovakia and raising her three children, Donald Jr., Eric and Ivanka with President Trump.
The former couple were married in 1977 and divorced in 1992, after he had an affair with former beauty queen Marla Maples, whom he married.
Ivana Trump denied seeking her ex-husband's permission to author the memoir, telling Williams that she "really never asked."
"It's about my life, and how did I raise my fabulous three kids," she said.
She added that while President Trump was a loving father, he could only connect with his children once they graduated from college and could "speak business."
