Three-time LPGA champion Jan Stephenson has spoken about the end of her brief relationship with former US President Donald Trump in the mid-1970s.
Stephenson, now 70, was not only a champion player but also one of the most marketable women on the LPGA tour during the 1970s and 1980s.
Stephenson, who was regularly seen on dates with celebrities, told SEN’s this is your trip Trump first contacted her by letter in 1974, asking her to represent a casino and offering to fly her to New York for a meeting.
She said he was “amazing, he’s very romantic” and that the couple played golf and had dinner regularly.
When asked about a surprise flight to Paris for dinner, Stephenson said she had been playing in Atlanta at the time he called her.
“He said, ‘Hey, would you like to go to dinner?’ And I said, ‘No, I’m in Atlanta, I’m playing a golf tournament,’” he said.
“And he’s like, ‘Well, I’d like to take you out to dinner.’ And I said, ‘I’m not going to fly to New York right now because I’m in Atlanta and I have an early tee time at the Pro-Am on Wednesday.’
“So he said, ‘Okay, I’ll fly over to you and we’ll go out there for dinner.’ And I said, ‘OK, that’s fair.’
“He said, ‘How do you feel?’ I said, ‘I don’t care.’ He said: ‘Do you like French?’ I said, ‘French would be great.’ I didn’t know what the French were going to be like in Atlanta, but that’s fine.
“I drove to the plane and do you know how they opened the door and put out the red carpet for the plane? Not out.
“I was like, ‘What is he doing?’ So I went upstairs and the captain came out and said, ‘I think you should come in.’ I said, ‘Why do you want me to come in?’
“I walked into the plane, and it was full of red roses and there was an open seat with a rose and a little envelope. She was saying, ‘We have reservations,’ and she was in a French restaurant.
“I’m like, ‘Is this in Atlanta?’ And he said, ‘No, this isn’t in Atlanta,’ and we’re ready to take you to this French restaurant.
“I took the rose and said, ‘Thanks, but no thanks,’ and put the note back on the seat and left.
“And that was the night that I practically … I talked to him that night and he said, ‘I take it you’re going to choose golf over me?’ And I said, ‘Yes.’
At the time, Trump was also reportedly dating his first wife, Ivana, and the couple married in 1977.
Asked if Trump had wanted Stephenson to give up golf to be with him, he said: “We talked about it a little bit and then it started with Ivana while he was still seeing me.
“He told me ‘I’ve met a woman who reminds me a lot of you, she’s smart, she’s athletic, I don’t want just anyone from New York, I want someone who can be part of my business.’ And I was like, ‘Well, I really can’t do that.
He added that the pair stayed in touch and Trump said he could always reconsider and play one of his Winged Foot courses, but Stephenson replied: “No, it’s not like winning a US Open.”
However, the image of the sex symbol did not always sit well with Stephenson, who after winning the US Women’s Open in 1983 rejected the label.
“I always thought it was a compliment (to be considered a glamor girl), but undeserved,” Stephenson said at the time. “There are a lot of pretty girls on tour and I keep hoping people will say something about them. But you also have to win.
“I don’t really feel like I’m a glamor girl or a sex symbol because the most important thing to me is golf.
“But of course I still care about how I look.”
The label seemed to have stuck after its 1977 cover story on sports magazineThe “Sex in Sports” issue, where she was photographed braless for the cover in a pink top.
When informed of the image they were using, Stephenson tried to get the publisher to use a different image, but it had already been printed.
She then became the face of the tour, but raged against the sex symbol label, wanting to prove that she was one of the best players in the world.
In 2019, Stephenson was inducted into the World Gold Hall of Fame, tallying 20 career wins, including 16 on the LPGA Tour.