washington stormy daniels is a onetime porn star who has approached her growing role in us political history with character and wit though her feud with donald trump has come with a pricethe adult film actress has done battle with the former president for several years alleging in 2018 that the two had a sexual relationship the longago summer of 2006played out on social media and in front of television cameras where she is often clad in her trademark pink suit and stilettos while behind the scenes she is advised and protected by a phalanx of lawyerstrump supporters routinely insult her on social media echoing the republican leader who infamously nicknamed her horse facebut the 44yearold daniels who once toyed with entering politics herself has largely handled the spotlight with aplombi have so many messages coming in that i cant respondalso dont want to spill my champagne she tweeted thursday while also plugging her teamstormy merchandise after trump was indicted over hush money paid to herstephanie clifford her real name though she prefers to use her stage one was born in baton rouge louisiana and raised by her mother following her parents divorceshe was neglected by her family and sexually abused at age nine by an older man she wrote in a 2018 memoirdespite everything she was a good student and passionate about horsesto earn a living she first turned to striptease then the adult film industry where she became a star actress director and screenwriter earning several awardsbut it was her relationship with trump that introduced her to the wider american publicdaniels says she first crossed paths with the real estate mogul in the summer of 2006 during a charity golf tournament in lake tahoe on the border between california and nevadathe actress had just made a brief appearance in the judd apatow film the 40yearold virgindaniels was 27 at the time and trump 60according to danielss account he invited her to dinner in his suite where he welcomed her in his pajamas on his sofashe claims they went on to have what may have been the least impressive sex id ever hadtrump has denied they ever had sexual relations accusing daniels of extortion and a total con jobwhat is known for sure is that daniels received 130000 just before the 2016 presidential election a hush paymentthat payment is at the heart of the manhattan district attorneys indictment of trump reportedly on possible violation of campaign finance lawsonce the transaction was revealed in 2018 daniels asked courts to nullify her nondisclosure agreement with trump and began making the rounds on television showson cbss 60 minutes she said she wanted to set the record straightim not a victim she stated flatly and even if she was not attracted to him that night in lake tahoe she said their relationship was consensualthe actress was also cleareyed about the promises she said trump made regarding a possible role in the hit show the apprentice in