‘I Was, Like, Shocked!’: Donald Trump Allegedly Compared ‘Shark Tank’ Judge’s Breasts to Wife Melania’s During Business Meeting, Resurfaced Clip of Accusation Shows
“Shark Tank” host Barbara Corcoran knows President-elect Donald Trump well. The two rose through the ranks of New York City’s competitive real estate industry together, often negotiating deals side by side or bidding against each other.
This shared history gives Corcoran unique insight into Trump’s ability to persuade people of whatever he wants them to believe. She even called him a “magician” once when talking about this skill. Her relationship with him also allows her to speak candidly about his outrageous and sexist tendencies. In 2016, she recalled to CNN how he once compared her breasts to his wife’s during a meeting.
During a discussion about her relationship with Trump, her views on the women who accused him of sexual assault, and the then-ongoing election campaign against Hillary Clinton — the first woman he ran against for the presidency — Corcoran spoke about his blatant objectification of women.
“I’ve never been in a room with him alone except on one occasion. … I don’t want to sound like a gossiper, but I was pregnant with my first child at the time, and so was his second wife,” she shared in her OutFront interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett, “And he compared my breast size to his wife by putting his hands in the air like … talking about large [they were].”
She continued, “I was in a business meeting. I was, like, shocked, and so that, of course, is nothing compared to anything that we’ve been hearing in the press.”
Trump has been married three times: Ivana Trump (1977-1992), Marla Maples (1993-1999), and Melania Trump (2005 to present). Corcoran did not specify when this incident happened.
The real estate tycoon, who currently has an estimated net worth of $100 million, has had an accomplished career.
She started her real estate firm, Corcoran-Simone, in 1973, later renaming it The Corcoran Group. She would later sell the company to National Realty Trust for $66 million in 2001.
She gained global recognition as an investor on “Shark Tank,” joining the show in 2009. Over the years, she has invested $5.46 million and is set to appear in season 16.
While Corcoran could stand as an equal to Trump due to her success, she later reflected on how differently she might have felt if she weren’t a powerful executive.
“I didn’t think afterward how I would have felt if I had been a young woman, not a successful businesswoman, and been in a situation like that. I would have felt very compromised.” she said on the show, adding, “So if a man is that way … it’s so inappropriate. … I just assume it’s that way all the time.”
Trump’s public sexist, rude, and inappropriate comments are numerous. In fact, on Nov. 4, The Week released an article titled “89 Things Donald Trump Has Said About Women.”
It not just that his comments are out of line, some things are allegedly criminal, though sometimes accusations have not found their way to the courts.
One did.
Author and columnist E. Jean Carroll accused Donald Trump of raping her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s. In May 2023, a Manhattan jury held Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation, awarding Carroll $5 million in damages in a civil suit a year later. While the jury stopped short of finding him guilty of rape, the verdict was a rare legal victory in a long line of allegations against him.
One allegation made against him was from Summer Zervos, a former contestant on “The Apprentice,” who shared her own disturbing encounter with the former president. She accused him of groping and kissing her without consent in 2007. When Trump denied her claims and called her a liar, Zervos filed a defamation lawsuit in 2017. This did not go away. In 2021, she made the surprising decision to drop the suit.
Katie Johnson’s allegations against Trump are perhaps the most unsettling.
In 2016, she accused Trump and financier Jeffrey Epstein of raping her when she was just 13 years old in 1994. She eventually dropped her lawsuit, saying her safety was being threatened.
Trump’s history of alleged misconduct became a focal point during his presidential campaign. Over a dozen women came forward with stories of unwanted advances, ranging from groping to forced kisses. While these allegations didn’t lead to criminal charges or lawsuits, they cast a long shadow over his public image. None of their allegations were as impactful as his “Access Hollywood” recording, where he says that he could grab women by their genitalia.
While Corcoran has never claimed to have been physically or sexually violated by the 45th president, she believes she was done dirty by him in business.
In 2005, she and two associates sued Trump for $4 million in unpaid commissions tied to a major real estate deal. The trio claimed Trump had agreed to pay them $2 million for introducing him to Hong Kong investors who contributed $100 million to the Riverside South project on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, the New York Post reported.
The group also alleged they were owed another $2 million in commissions following the project’s $1.76 billion sale in 2005. While Trump had paid $2.7 million, Corcoran’s team argued he still owed them the remainder.
Ultimately, the case was dismissed in 2006.