A New Chapter for Bettina Anderson
The confetti had barely hit the ground before the announcement was made. Gone was Bettina Anderson – a Palm Beach socialite, It Girl and influencer. In her place was Mrs Bettina Trump, freshly minted member of the MAGA royal family. The bride of Donald Trump Jr. proclaimed her new status, updating her name on Instagram, with an accompanying photo – the words ‘Mrs Trump’ embroidered into an ivory gown.
In case further clarification were needed, her bio now reads: ‘Married. Not domesticated.’ Last weekend’s wedding on Little Pipe Cay in the Bahamas was, it seems, a blissful, joyful affair. Around 40 people flew in to the tropical paradise to witness the ceremony – among them Trump Jr’s five children from his first marriage, and his three oldest siblings: Ivanka, Eric and Tiffany. The groom’s father, President Donald Trump, remained in Washington DC.
Rumors abound that a larger, White House celebration is to come. But whatever the case, though the engagement lasted barely six months, the marriage was – for Bettina at least – long-awaited. Because, for all the glamor, the socialite lifestyle and movie-star good looks, the truth, as told to the Daily Mail by multiple sources, is that the Florida-born 39-year-old has long harbored a very straightforward ambition: to get married and have children. And in Trump Jr, 48, she has found the tall, dark and handsome multi-millionaire of her dreams.
It doesn’t hurt that her new husband has not ruled out political ambitions of his own – a new Daily Mail poll suggests that he would be the voters’ favorite as his father’s successor. And should marriage and children come with the possibility of one day being First Lady, so much the better.
‘First lady? Are you kidding? Of course she would love that,’ one source told the Daily Mail. ‘That is pretty much her life goal realized. She changed her handle on Instagram to Trump faster than posting any wedding photos.’
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Bettina herself has maintained a dignified silence throughout her almost-two-year courtship with Trump Jr, with little beyond a December 15 acknowledgment of their engagement during a White House party, at which she declared: ‘This has really been the most unforgettable weekend of my life, and I get to marry the love of my life, and I feel just like the luckiest girl in the world.’
Her half-sister Mea Stone, 60, who spoke with the Daily Mail, echoed the sentiment, saying she was happy for her: ‘She’s been wanting to get married for ages.’ Stone and Bettina share a father, banker Harry Loy Anderson Jr, who died aged 70 in 2013 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s.
Stone and her sister Bebe McCranels, 59, were Loy Anderson’s children from his first wife Molly Babcock, who featured in a 1965 New York Times article about the ‘beautiful-girl Mafia’ that populated Palm Beach at the time. Babcock, a model, married the dashing financier that year. They divorced in the early 1970s, when Stone was around eight and her parents in their 20s.
He went on to marry Swedish model Inger Anderson – mother of Stone’s half-siblings Loy, 49; Kent, 42; and twins Bettina and Kristina, 39. Both of Loy Anderson’s strikingly beautiful wives were immortalized by celebrated society photographer Slim Aarons, and their children have carved out equally glamorous existences for themselves.
‘Bettina’s a really nice girl, and I hope she gets to have her baby soon,’ said Stone. ‘That’s what she’s wanted her whole life, to be like her sister Kristina and have babies, and not to have to watch her nieces and nephews grow up without her having any babies. In some ways I think babies are more important to her than who the husband was.’
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Anderson Jr, who came from ‘old money,’ was not impressed by the flashy new arrival. ‘My dad considered Trump a slimy used car salesman from New York – that’s how he described him,’ said Stone. What would he make of his daughter marrying into the dynasty? ‘I’d rather not comment on that,’ she said with a laugh. ‘I don’t know. It’s been a long time since he didn’t like Trump. He may have changed his mind before he died. I don’t know.’
Stone and her British-born husband now live in South Carolina, where they farm angora goats. It is, she says, a world away from Palm Beach high society. She last traveled to Palm Beach, where her siblings all still live, for Mother’s Day, and spoke to Bettina then. They are just, she says, ‘very, very different.’
After graduating from high school in Boca Raton, Bettina studied art history, criticism and conservation at Columbia University in New York City. But soon she was back in Florida, devoting her time to philanthropic endeavors and environmental projects, modelling and galas – selling her outfits on her Shop My page as she went.
Has Bettina ever been to visit her farm? ‘No,’ said Stone. ‘She doesn’t like live animals.’ Is that a reference to hunting? Bettina has spoken frequently of her love of spear fishing, and her new husband frequently courts controversy with his exploits – in recent years he has bagged an elephant, buffalo and crocodile in Zimbabwe; hunted grizzly bears in Alaska; and shot an endangered sheep in Mongolia.
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Around 2017, Bettina had a short-lived engagement to billionaire Wrigley’s chewing gum heir Beau Wrigley, a man 23 years her senior. It is not clear why they broke it off, but from that time onwards she was a feature in the ‘most eligible’ lists of Palm Beach society.
Set in the context of these long-held desires, Bettina’s former Instagram bio seems more wistful than witty: ‘I’m just your typical stay at home mom…only I don’t do household chores…or have a husband…or have kids…’
The Daily Mail has reached out for comment. For her part, Stone said she wishes her half-sibling every happiness.
‘Bettina has a very strong personality… and she’ll do very well in that relationship,’ said Stone. ‘She’ll be able to cope with the spotlight – although and she doesn’t do very well with criticism. So that should be interesting.’
‘She’s opinionated,’ said Stone, rather than political. For now, however, Stone expects the pair to limit their ambitions to simply buying a big house in Palm Beach and starting a family.
‘That’s her life,’ Stone said. ‘She’s not leaving Palm Beach.’ Unless, perhaps, the White House beckons.
