Stormy Daniels: The woman who might cause Trump's painful downfall

Stormy Daniels claims she had a sexual encounter with former US President Donald Trump in 2006, but Trump denies. [Courtesy of AP]

A 2006 alleged sexual encounter between Donald Trump and Stormy Daniels has returned to haunt him. Daniels says she had sex with Trump, but the former US president vehemently denies.

It doesn't matter now who between the two is saying the truth as Trump's image is already dented.

In 2016, when Trump was charging his presidential campaigns, he allegedly paid Daniels Sh13.2 million ($130,000) to remain silent about the alleged 2006 sexual encounter they had during a golf event at Lake Tahoe on the border of California and Nevada states.

Daniels was 27 years old at the time, while Trump was 60.

The former president is now accused of disguising the payments he made to Daniels in 2016 as "legal fees", yet they were allegedly meant to buy her silence.

According to the prosecution, Trump feared that his chances of winning the November 2016 presidential election would be affected if Daniels revealed her sexual encounter with then-Republican presidential candidate.

In the US, it is illegal to hide the nature of payments made to another party, and offenders could face up to four years in jail if found guilty. Trump faces 34 such charges.

So, who exactly is Stormy Daniels, the woman who threatens to hamper Trump's 2024 presidential bid?

She is 44 years old, and her real name is Stephanie Gregory Clifford.

Stormy Daniels is her stage name in the adult films that she features in. The American is also an actress, director and former stripper.

She was born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in the US. Her parents, Sheila and Bill Gregory, divorced when Daniels was about four years old.

Daniel's mother took care of her upbringing.

"We were just trash. And my mom was a trainwreck, and my clothes didn't fit, and I was poor and I smelled," she said in an interview with Vice News in 2021.

Despite her family challenges, Daniels posted extremely good grades in school. In 1997, she graduated from Scotlandville Magnet High School in Baton Rouge, and considered becoming a journalist.

When she was 17 years old, she made a chance visit to a strip club in Louisiana and made a guest performance. She, thereafter, got regular gigs, cementing her place as a talented stripper.

Through stripping, she managed to save and buy a house and a car at the age of 23.

In efforts to find a more stable source of income, she ventured into pornography, earning her the stage name Stormy Daniels.

In 2006, she met Trump, who was the executive producer of The Apprentice, a widely popular show at the time. Pictures of the two, during the 2006 meetup, have since been circulated online. It was around that time that Daniels allegedly had sex with the former US leader, allegations that Trump has continued to deny.

In 2018, Trump's laywer Michael Cohen admitted to having arranged a payment of Sh13.2 million ($130,000) to Daniels just before the 2016 election to stop her from disclosing the sexual encounter between Trump and the actress.

Trump continues to deny the allegations, which could seal his downfall for "falsifying business records". He allegedly concealed the payment as "legal fees".

Daniels, a mother of one, is currently married to Barrett Blade, her fellow porn actor, who is her fourth husband.