Stormy Daniels, a porn star and director of adult films, is a major name in Donald Trump's ongoing legal troubles. With the Trump hush money trial she has become a household name for her tenacity and meeting Trump's verbal attacks blow-by-blow.

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And with Trump sentenced to unconditional discharge in the hush money case, here's all you need to know about Stormy Daniels.

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Adult film star Stephanie Clifford, who usually goes by her stage name Stormy Daniels, is at the centre of the former US president's ongoing criminal trial. At the trial, Trump faced the jury over charges of falsifying records to cover up a $130,000 payment that was supposed to squash details of an alleged sexual tryst that could have potentially cost Trump his 2016 presidency.

Daniels, in 2018, made headlines after going public with allegations that she had slept with Trump over a decade earlier. She claims that the sexual escapade happened during ex-President Donald Trump's third marriage to his current wife, Melania Trump.

The duo repotedly crossed paths in 2006. 

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Daniels has claimed that she had an encounter with Trump in a hotel penthouse. She said Trump invited her to his hotel suite for dinner, and during their conversation he suggested she appear on his reality television show, "The Apprentice." 

Daniels claimed that she went to the bathroom after the conversation with him only to come back and see Trump on the bed in his boxer shorts. 

"He said ... 'I thought you were serious about what you wanted. If you ever want to get out of that trailer park,'" Daniel said in the courtroom. She said after that she "blacked out" and had no idea how she reached the bed with her clothes off. 

To keep this a secret, she received a $130,000 hush money payment just before the 2016 presidential election. 

A fake story? 

During the hearing in the court in May 2024, at one point the prosecutor alleged that all the claims against Trump by Daneils were just a story she wrote herself. 

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She replied to that saying, "If that story was untrue, I would have written it to be a lot better."

A neglected child?

Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Stormy, by her own account, comes from a poor family. In her 2018 memoir, Stormy Daniels wrote that following her parent's divorce, she was raised by her mother.

Faced with neglect as a child, she claims to have faced sexual abuse at the young age of nine. Despite everything, she was a good student.

After school, she turned to striptease to earn a living and then migrated to the adult film industry where she, as per AFP, became a star actress, director and screenwriter, earning several awards. 

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In 2010, she reportedly gave serious consideration to running for a US Senate seat from Louisiana. A registered Republican, she has a young daughter who is married to her fourth husband, fellow porn actor Barrett Blade.

(With inputs from agencies)