Who is Stormy Daniels, porn star linked to Donald Trump's hush money case?

By: Gulshan Parveen

A porn star

Stormy Daniels, a porn star and director of adult films, is a major name in Donald Trump's hush momney case. Her real name is Stephanie Clifford but she goes by her stage name Stormy Daniels.

Linked with Trump's case

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 him his 2016 presidency.

Sexual encounter with Trump

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.

Trump's offer

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."

'If you want to get out of trailer park'

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.

'If that story was untrue...'

During the hearing in the court in May 2024, at one point the prosecutor alleged that all the claims against Trump by Daniels were just a story she wrote herself. She replied to that saying, "If that story was untrue, I would have written it to be a lot better."

Her background

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

Sexual abuse during childhood

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

Career

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.

A Republican

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