Marla Maples Dedicates Emotional 'Dancing with the Stars' Performance to Daughter Tiffany Trump: She's 'The Greatest Gift in the World'

The actress dedicated her April 4 DWTS dance to her daughter with Donald Trump

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Published on April 4, 2016 09:30 PM

Marla Maples went into Monday night’s Dancing with the Stars just wanting to make her daughter happy – and that’s exactly what she did.

The actress and former Mrs. Donald Trump gave a high-energy and brightly colored performance to a cover of Pharrell’s “Happy.”

For her Most Memorable Year – the night’s theme – Maples chose 1993, the year her daughter, Tiffany, was born.

And as Maples, 52, said right after her dance, “This was so important because my daughter’s watching.”

It was single motherhood (she and Trump split in 1999) that helped teach Maples how much she was capable of.

“It had its challenges,” she said Monday night before performing. “But in a way I got to raise her doing our own thing. There wasn’t a man there pushing buttons saying what you could and couldn’t do.”

And there was nothing Maples would trade for the life she and Tiffany have shared.

“I just consider having a child the greatest gift in the world,” Maples said during a pre-recorded package.

Her DWTS dance, she said, was a way of recognizing how precious that is.

“Just having her faith in me, knowing she’s there believing in me makes me all the better,” she said. “I would love to dedicate this dance to Tiffany and the beautiful life I want her to always have.”

The judges awarded her 21 out of 30 for her work.

Dancing with the Stars airs Mondays (8 p.m. ET) on ABC.