Stormy Daniels breaks her silence: I had to defend myself

Adult-film actress Stormy Daniels said she decided to speak publicly about her alleged affair with President Trump because she felt the need to defend herself and her family from legal and public scrutiny.

In an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” aired on Sunday night, Daniels said she felt compelled to set the record straight after a Wall Street Journal article revealed she had been paid $130,000 by Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen, reportedly to keep quiet about the alleged affair.

She denied being one of the anonymous sources quoted in that article, but said once it had been published she was pressured into signing statements authored by Cohen denying the alleged affair.

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“I didn’t wanna take away from the legitimate and legal, I’d like to point out, career that I’ve worked very hard to establish,” Daniels said. “And most importantly, I did not want my family and my child exposed to all the things that she’s being exposed to right now.”

“Everything that I was afraid of coming out has come out anyway,” she added.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, filed a lawsuit earlier this month seeking to void the nondisclosure agreement, which her lawyer claims is invalid because it was never signed by Trump himself.

Trump’s lawyers, however, argued in subsequent court documents that Daniels repeatedly violated the nondisclosure agreement, and could be forced to pay $20 million in damages.

Daniels acknowledged in the “60 Minutes” interview that the scandal has attracted attention, and that she has gotten more job offers as a result. But she rebuked the notion that she sought to stir controversy to raise her own profile.

“I was perfectly fine saying nothing at all,” she said. “But I’m not OK with being made out to be a liar, or people thinking that I did this for money and people are like, ‘Oh, you’re an opportunist.’ “

“Tell me one person who would turn down a job offer making more than they’ve been making, doing the same thing that they’ve always done.”

She also said during the interview that someone threatened her after she agreed to do an interview with a sister publication of In Touch magazine in 2011, telling her to drop the story about the alleged affair.