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Marla Maples, the second wife of Donald Trump and mother to his younger daughter Tiffany, 30, glides into Claridge’s. Her blonde locks bounce, and a toned body offers no hint that she celebrated her 60th (or “turned 30 again”, as she puts it) last October. At first, her all-American charm masks some seriously staunch beliefs as well as a fierce desire to help her ex-husband win the US November elections.
Because Maples, in from Florida, is still on small talk, cheerily recounting her morning spent at the Hillsong Church in Soho, following a blow dry in a Chinatown salon. Everything is seasoned with Stateside-superlatives. London is “magical”. Her “message” is one of “unity and light”. Ignore a few spiritual one-liners, though, and her initial impression is charming.