Bio/Wiki of Stormy Daniels
| Name | Stormy Daniels |
| Born | March 17, 1979 |
| Birthplace | Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA |
| Occupation | Adult film actor, writer, and director |
| Notable Works | The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Maroon 5’s music video |
| Achievements | Named Penthouse Pet of the Month in 2007, inducted into three halls of fame |
| Controversies | Alleged affair with Donald Trump in 2006, payment received in 2016 |
| Education | Graduated from Scotlandville Magnet High School in 1997 |
| Early Career | Began career as a stripper at age 17 |
| Adult Film Career | Appeared in her first pornographic movie in 2002 |
| Production Career | Writer, director, and producer of various adult films |
Who is Stormy Daniels?
Having started her career as a stripper at 17, Stormy Daniels has become a well-known adult film actor, writer, and director who was even named Penthouse Pet of the Month in 2007. She has also crossed over into mainstream media, with appearances in popular works such as The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, and a music video by Maroon 5.
However, Daniels gained widespread attention in 2018 due to reports of an alleged affair with Donald Trump in 2006, which he denies, and a payment she received in 2016 prior to the presidential election in exchange for not discussing her relationship with the then-presidential candidate.
Stephanie Gregory Clifford, known professionally as Stormy Daniels, was born on March 17, 1979, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to parents Sheila Gregory and Bill Gregory. Her parents split when she was very young, and she was primarily raised by her mother in Baton Rouge, with little involvement from her father. After graduating from Scotlandville Magnet High School in 1997, Daniels was accepted into several colleges but ultimately chose to pursue a career as a stripper.
Early Life
Daniels began stripping for the first time at age 17. It was her stage name even though she was already known as Stormy in real life. Before adopting the moniker Stormy Daniels, she occasionally went by Stormy Waters. She rose through the ranks to become a strip club headliner before beginning to work in porn.
Daniels has reached the top of the adult film industry since appearing in a lesbian scene in her first pornographic movie in 2002. She has won many honors and been inducted into three halls of fame. She is a popular writer and director in the genre in addition to acting. The movies Good Will Humping and Space Nuts are among Daniels’ works.
The acclaimed Western epic Wanted, which she wrote, directed, and starred in. She also used her passion for horses into the equestrian sports movie Unbridled, in which she also acted, wrote, and directed.
Daniels worked on a long-term deal with Wicked Pictures, a well-known name in adult entertainment. Before getting pregnant, she made twice as many movies as usual, ensuring that fresh releases would still arrive throughout her maternity leave. She worked with the company to guarantee that parenthood wouldn’t significantly impair her career. Daniels inked a contract with Digital Playground, another reputable studio, in January 2018.
Personal Life
As a child, Daniels developed a fondness for horses that has persisted into adulthood, and she is now a nationally-ranked equestrian who owns multiple horses. However, her relationship with her parents is now nonexistent. Over the course of her life, Daniels has been married four times and has one child.
Her first marriage was to adult film actor and director Pat Myne (real name Bartholomew Clifford) in 2003, but they divorced in 2005. Her second marriage was to Mike Mosney (known as Mike Moz), which lasted from 2007 to 2009. Mosney was listed in Daniels’ nondisclosure agreement as someone who knew about her alleged affair with Trump. In 2011, Daniels and her boyfriend at the time, Glendon Crain (also known as Brendan Miller in his adult film career), had a daughter together. They got married in 2015, but Crain filed for divorce in July 2018.
Daniels’ most recent marriage is to Barrett Blade (real name Russell Barrett), whom she met in 1998. Blade is also involved in the adult entertainment industry. In October 2022, the couple went on a honeymoon to Mexico, as per Blade’s Instagram.
Career as a Stripper and Adult Film Actor
According to Daniels, she claims that after meeting at the American Century celebrity golf tournament in July 2006, she had a consensual sexual relationship with Trump in his hotel room. Daniels also stated that they stayed in contact through 2007 and Trump even offered her a spot on his reality TV show, The Apprentice, which ultimately didn’t happen. Trump, who had just become a father a few months before the alleged affair, has denied any wrongdoing.
The purported extramarital affair between former US President Donald Trump and adult film actress Stormy Daniels has garnered significant attention and may have legal consequences for him.
In 2011, Daniels had a conversation with a reporter regarding her alleged affair with Trump, but the interview was not published until In Touch released it in 2018. In 2016, while the presidential election was ongoing, Daniels engaged with various media outlets, including ABC’s Good Morning America, to share her story.
However, instead of going public, she accepted a payment of $130,000 in exchange for signing an agreement to keep her relationship with Trump confidential. The deal was finalized in October 2016.
In January 2018, the Wall Street Journal ran a story about the nondisclosure agreement and the purported sexual encounter. Daniels initially denied any such relationship with Trump, even signing a statement to that effect. Later, she claimed that the alleged affair did occur and that she had been coerced into concealing the truth.
Daniels’ Interview with Life & Style and In Touch, and Publication of Interview in 2018
Back in 2011, Daniels had a conversation with Life & Style, a publication affiliated with In Touch, regarding her relationship with Trump. In exchange for this information, she was promised a payment of $15,000. The publication also spoke with individuals associated with Daniels who were able to verify certain aspects of her account.
However, before any article could be released in 2011, Michael Cohen, Trump’s attorney at the time, allegedly threatened to sue, and the story was scrapped. As a result, Daniels did not receive the promised payment.
After the Wall Street Journal ran a story in 2018 about the $130,000 payment to Daniels, In Touch published the 2011 interview. In it, Daniels claimed that Trump had once complimented her, saying she was as intelligent and attractive as his daughter Ivanka. Daniels also disclosed that while she had enjoyed conversing with Trump, she had not been physically attracted to him when she agreed to engage in sexual activity.
Events surrounding Daniels’ relationship with Trump and the NDA.
Following the Wall Street Journal article, Daniels initially denied having a relationship with Trump (Trump and his team also strongly denied any such involvement). However, Daniels soon began granting interviews, including a visit to Jimmy Kimmel Live! on January 30, 2018, following Trump’s State of the Union address.
Also Read: Trump Accused of Similar Behavior with Model Karen Dougal Amid Stormy Daniels Case
In February, Cohen acted according to the NDA’s terms and took Daniels to a private arbitrator to prevent her from discussing her relationship with Trump; a temporary restraining order was issued. In that same month, Cohen confessed to making the $130,000 payment, claiming that he had used his personal funds, and that neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign had been involved.
On March 6, Daniels’ lawyer, Michael Avenatti (who did not represent her at the time she signed the NDA in 2016), filed a lawsuit seeking to have the NDA nullified, as Trump had not signed the agreement (it uses the aliases Peggy Peterson for Daniels and David Dennison for Trump, with spots designated for Dennison to sign). The suit also alleged that some of Cohen’s public statements violated the NDA.
Moreover, Cohen’s side argued that Daniels had accepted the payment and refrained from contesting the contract for months, thereby acknowledging its validity, and that Trump did not need to sign the NDA. On March 16, a suit was filed against Daniels, demanding $20 million in damages for violating the NDA on multiple occasions (the agreement stipulated that Daniels pay $1 million for each breach). Trump also became a party to the lawsuit.
On April 5, 2018, during his travel on Air Force One, Trump told journalists that he had no knowledge of the payment made by Cohen to Daniels for signing the NDA and did not know where the money had come from.
In September 2018, Trump filed paperwork with the Central California federal court stating that he would not try to enforce the NDA. His lawyer asked the judge to dismiss Daniels’ suit, claiming that her claim for declaratory relief had become irrelevant. In March 2019, a federal judge in Los Angeles officially dismissed the lawsuit because Trump and Cohen had agreed not to enforce the NDA, according to court documents.
Later that year, Cohen got into legal trouble, partly because of the payment he made to Daniels. In August, he pleaded guilty to eight charges in federal court, including campaign finance violations, for “intending to influence the 2016 presidential election” with the payment. Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison in December 2018.
Anderson Cooper’s 60 Minutes interview with Stormy Daniels
Anderson Cooper conducted a comprehensive interview with Daniels on 60 Minutes, which was aired on March 25, 2018. In the interview, Daniels alleges that she was threatened in 2011, after speaking to a reporter about her alleged affair with Trump.
According to Daniels, a man approached her in Las Vegas when she was with her baby daughter and warned her to “Leave Trump alone. Forget the story,” before looking at her daughter and saying, “That’s a beautiful little girl. It’d be a shame if something happened to her mom.”
Also Read: Stormy Daniels: Trump Scandal Returns as Criminal Charges Loom
During the interview, Cooper asked Daniels why she had initially denied the affair publicly. She responded that she had done so under duress, explaining that she was told, “They can make your life hell in many different ways.” Daniels also stated that concerns for her family’s safety and well-being had led her to sign the NDA in 2016. However, she had decided to come forward because she was “not okay with being made out to be a liar.”
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Stormy Daniels’ defamation suit against Trump dismissed and ordered to pay legal fees
After her initial lawsuit against Cohen was halted for 90 days by a California judge, Daniels filed a defamation suit against President Trump in April 2018. The suit claimed that Trump’s attempts to discredit her account of being threatened in a parking lot caused her more than $75,000 in damages. The suit focused on a tweet by Trump that mocked a composite sketch of her alleged assailant.
In October 2018, U.S. District Judge S. James Otero dismissed the suit and ordered Daniels to reimburse Trump’s legal fees. He stated that Trump’s tweet was “rhetorical hyperbole” common in public discourse. Daniels appealed the ruling, but a federal appeals court upheld it in March 2022, and she was ordered to pay nearly $300,000 in attorneys’ fees.
Charges against Stormy Daniels dropped following wrongful arrest and police apology
The charges against Daniels were dismissed on the same day of her arrest, July 12, 2018, after the Columbus city attorney’s office determined that the law she was accused of violating did not apply to her case. The city also dropped charges against two other employees of the strip club who were arrested that night. The decision came after the incident drew national attention and criticism from free-speech advocates who accused the police of selectively enforcing the law against Daniels.
Also Read: Former US President Donald Trump arrested today and facing 34 criminal charges, denies wrongdoing
The Columbus Police Department said in a statement that the arrest was part of a long-term investigation into human trafficking, prostitution, and other vice-related crimes at adult entertainment clubs. However, the department also apologized for a “mistake” in Daniels’ arrest and said that the officers involved would face “disciplinary action.”
Mainstream Entertainment
In addition to her work in the adult entertainment industry, Daniels has made brief appearances in several films and TV shows, including The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Pineapple Express, Party Down, and Dirt. She also appeared in a music video for the Maroon 5 song “Wake Up Call.” Director and producer Judd Apatow has praised Daniels for being smart, nice, and great to work with, and he has cast her in multiple films.
Daniels’ 2009 Senate Campaign Against David Vitter and Alleged Contact with Trump
Back in 2009, Daniels established a committee to assess the feasibility of running for the Senate in Louisiana, with her opponent being the socially conservative Republican Senator David Vitter, who had been involved in the “D.C. Madam” prostitution scandal. Her campaign slogan “Screwing People Honestly” targeted Vitter. At that time, it was revealed that she had Trump’s phone number in her contacts, and she allegedly disclosed details about their supposed affair. During this exploratory phase, Daniels was arrested on a misdemeanor domestic battery charge, which was eventually dismissed.
However, in April 2010, she ended her campaign, citing campaign costs as the reason for her withdrawal, but pledged to continue fighting for equal representation for individuals in all professions, including dishwashers, cashiers, bus drivers, and adult film actors.
Also Read: Trump Expresses Surprise Following Arrest:I Never Anticipated Such a Day
