politics

The unremarkable 90 seconds that sparked Stormy Daniels' affair with Donald Trump.

 

For years Stormy Daniels has been one of the biggest names in adult entertainment, having scored herself a slew of acting and directing accolades since she landed her first lead role in 2002.

But this year, the 39-year-old has found herself a player in a vastly different scene: US politics.

After going public in January with claims of a 2006 sexual affair with President Donald Trump, the pornographic film star has become somewhat of a household name.

When Donald Trump met Stormy at a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe in 2006, he told her she reminded him of his daughter.

That night, they had sex for the first time.

Stormy Daniels speaks exclusively to 60 Minutes…

Now Stormy has spoken exclusively to 60 Minutes about her alleged relationship with the US President.

“I am not a liar and I am not a gold digger, and I did not do this because I’m starved for attention,” she told the host. 

“I just wanted to stand up for myself and set the record straight and prove I wasn’t lying. I think I’ve pretty effectively done that, the message is pretty clear, don’t mess with me,” she added. 

Stormy said that after the night she had sex with Trump, she didn’t think about it often.

“It was 90 seconds that I never thought about really again. It doesn’t define me, except now to everyone else it somehow does. Which is really disappointing,” she said. 

“I think that we shared a mutual curiosity, genuine curiosity about the business aspects of each other’s lives,” she added. 

When asked whether she felt she was a victim, Stormy said no.

“No, I’m not a victim. I’m a victim of myself. I never said, ‘No, don’t touch me,’ or, ‘I’m leaving,’ or, ‘I don’t wanna do this’. That absolutely did not happen,” she said. 

Speaking about her career as a stripper, Stormy shared that her demographic were  “middle aged, upper class, white men,” which explains how she met Trump in the first place. 

She added that there is a crucial reason why it’s obvious she isn’t lying.

“If I was going to lie about having sex with someone famous Brad Pitt here we go, you know what I mean.  I would pick somebody way less embarrassing than Donald Trump. Are you kidding? Now no man is ever gonna wanna date me.  I’d have at least picked somebody cool,” she said. 

When asked why she says mean things about Trump, she says she is giving him a taste of his own medicine.

I justify it in a way to myself, and even now saying this is a man who’s said much worse things about women multiple times. So here’s a taste of your own medicine, a**hole,” she added. 

In May 2011, Stormy agreed to disclose the affair to an American magazine for US$15,000 dollars, though according to CBS, the story was dropped following threats of legal action made by Trump’s attorney, Michael Cohen. Months later, Stormy was visited by an unknown man in Las Vegas, who told her to drop the story, insinuating her daughter would be left orphaned if she pursued it.

In January 2018, seven years after she was threatened, The Wall Street Journal broke that Stormy was paid US$130,000 to keep quiet about the affair.

In a statement to The New York Times in February, Cohen said that he paid the money out of his own pocket in a “private transaction”.

As news broke about Stormy around the world, with headlines claiming she was a liar, she decided it was time to speak out and defend herself.

She says she will not be defined by it.