The last thing writer Judith Newman expected to get from Marla Maples was a lesson in kashrut. But as the journalist notes in The New York Times, Maples – better known as Mrs. Donald Trump #2 – is a “kabbalista” who apparently keeps strictly kosher.

For her one-on-one with the Times, Maples “had made a reservation at Prime Grill in Manhattan and texted, ‘Let’s wear hats!’ Only when I got there did I realize the steakhouse was kosher,” Newman writes.

“I don’t eat dairy,” Maples tells her, “So this is a great place to be if I want to eat meat, because they don’t mix milk and meat here.”

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It’s quite an about-face for the 49-year-old who got embroiled in “one of the biggest sex scandals of the 1990s” when she confronted Ivana Trump on an Aspen ski slope. Maples’ famous line: “Are you in love with your husband? Because I am.” Maples was 24. Maples and Trump divorced in 1999.

Maples made more headlines back in 2004 when she joined boldface Kabbalah devotees like Madonna on a tashlich pilgrimage to Israel. “Israel is the heartbeat of the world,” she told the Jewish Journal at the time while “holding a bottle of kabbalah mineral water, marketed by the Kabbalah Centre for its spiritual properties.”

Maples continued that incorporating kabbalah teachings in her life has made a real change. “It’s helped me live without so much chaos, it’s helped me deal with anger,” she said. She added that, if celebrities wish to address their own spiritual lives, they are “as deserving as anyone else.”

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