Vanessa Trump has filed for divorce from husband Donald Trump Jr after 12 years of marriage.

The 40-year-old mother-of-five submitted papers in Manhattan Supreme Court yesterday, it has been reported.

A source said she is not asking for full custody of the children at this time.

Vanessa was photographed outside her Manhattan apartment building yesterday morning shortly before her divorce papers were filed in court.

 

She was joined by Secret Service agents, who unloaded her car outside the building.

The men began taking in empty suitcases, suggesting that the children may soon be heading off on a trip over school vacation.

It is unclear if the five children will all head off with together or if the couple will split up their brood.

This will be the first time that a child of the president has entered into divorce proceedings while their father held office.

US President Donald Trump meanwhile is one of only two presidents to have been divorced prior to taking office, with the other being Ronald Reagan.

Page Six reported on Wednesday that sources close to the pair had said that the two were leading separate lives, and had been for some time.

"The problems have been there for a long time, the couple had hoped to stay together during the president's time in office, but it is getting harder to resolve their issues," said one source.

"He's never there."

The two have been spotted together less and less in recent months and spent almost no time with one another over the holidays at Mar-a-Lago.

Don Jr posted a number of videos on social media during the two weeks that the pair were in Palm Beach which showed him with the couple's children but never Vanessa.

Vanessa was also absent from one of the family dinners and did not attend the annual New Year's Eve gala, with Don Jr. instead taking his son Donnie.

It was also his birthday that night.

Then, in February, it was revealed that Vanessa was at an apartment a few blocks away from the family's residence in Manhattan when she opened a letter addressed to her husband containing a mystery white powder.

In the wake of those reports, the two were seen together on February 13 doing the school run with their two youngest children, Chloe and Spencer.

The couple had been introduced multiple times before going on their first date, with President Trump responsible for two of those introductions.

Vanessa said in a 2006 interview that he twice introduced her to his son at a fashion show in 2003, and she finally agreed to a date when they met a third time at a mutual friend's party.

Don Jr proposed to Vanessa, who was a model and actress at the time, with a US$100,000 engagement ring back in 2004.

The proposal was captured by the multiple photographers alerted to the fact that Don Jr would be proposing in front of the same jewellery store from which he obtained the ring for a heavily discounted price.

They were married at Mar-a-Lago in November 2005, though those plans were almost derailed due to Hurricane Wilma, which forced the couple to move the wedding from the club's lawn to a more sheltered space by the pool due to the damage done by high winds.

Those nuptials took a backseat in the press however to the fact that the wedding marked one of the rare occasions when Donald and his new wife Melania came face-to-face with his ex Ivana.

Photos from the event show Donald and Melania smiling in the front row while Ivana looks less than pleased to have her picture taken as she sits next to her mother Marie.

Prior to marrying Don Jr, Vanessa had been linked to Leonardo DiCaprio and had a small role in the film Something's Gotta Give.

Vanessa was very much in the spotlight prior to the couple's wedding, but once the couple began to have children shifted her focus to raising their sons and daughters.

She gave birth to all five of the couple's children in a span of just seven years.

In the wake of her father-in-law's announcement that he would be running for president, Vanessa did step out on the campaign trail a bit and occasionally post on social media.

Vanessa also may have provided the first clue that she and Don Jr were leading separate lives back in November when she posted a photo of her Christmas tree of Twitter and wrote: "I just finished decorating our tree with my kiddies! We are in the holiday spirit! Christmas will be here soon!"

There was no mention of her husband at all in the tweet.