STORMY Daniels revealed the moment she broke down in tears amid the uproar over her alleged affair with Donald Trump.
The mum-of-one, 44, opened up to Piers Morgan on TalkTV in an “astonishing” interview after the ex-US President was this week hauled to court.
Trump was indicted over accusations of financial crimes relating to $130,000 hush money he allegedly paid Stormy in 2016 to keep quiet over claims they had an affair in 2006.
Sun columnist Piers said he was giving the former porn star a chance to tell her story “about the fling that may send President Trump to prison”.
During the 90-minute chat, Stormy told Piers she cries when she thinks about the time she “lost” with her daughter as she tried to deal with the storm over the alleged fling.
She said: “That’s the one thing that was taken from me that can never be given back.
“That was time lost with my daughter.
“I get really upset about it – that’s what affects me the most. I’ll get emotional and cry.”
Stormy added: “She didn’t ask for this.
“There are things that I missed because for a long time the only way to keep her safe was to be advertised as being somewhere else.
“I stayed away a lot to protect her, and it worked.”
Trump has decried the case against him as a witch hunt – claiming it is politically motivated and led by the Democrats.
He faces 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree.
Stormy’s interview with Piers is her first TV interview since Trump’s arrest on Tuesday, broadcast on TalkTV in the UK and released on streaming service Fox Nation in the US.
During their chat, Stormy vowed she will testify if Trump’s case goes to trial, saying she has “nothing to hide”.
“You weren’t asked to give evidence to the grand jury, but you may be asked to testify if this ends up as a trial. How do you feel about potentially testifying in a trial that will be watched around the world?” Piers asked.
Stormy replied: “Any time you’re up in the public eye it’s scary. I mean, I used to get scared giving an oral book report in school, so it’s daunting, but I look forward to it.”
She went on: “I have nothing to hide. I’m the only one that has been telling the truth.
“And, you know, you can’t shame me even more.
“So I feel like if they don’t, it paints the picture that they know something about me that makes me you know, untrustworthy, or not reliable.”
“I think having them call me in and put me on the stand legitimises my story and who I am,” added Stormy.
However, Stormy – who is a registered Republican but said she did not vote for Trump in 2016 or 2020 – told Piers that she does not believe he should face jail for his alleged crimes.
“Specific to my case, I don’t think that his crimes against me are worthy of incarceration,” she said.
But she explained that for other alleged crimes he is under investigation for – Trump could end up being sent to prison.
Trump is currently also under investigation for mishandling government documents, over allegations of fraud, and for attempting to interfere with the 2020 presidential election.
Stormy told Piers: “I feel like the other things that he has done, if he is found guilty, absolutely.”
She also urged Trump, who she claims got his bodyguard to ask for her phone number, to “tell the truth”.
Stormy added: “If you continue to do this you are setting a precedent where people think that they won’t be held accountable and I’m afraid there are gong to be a lot of people hurt.”
She warned if Trump is found guilty of other crimes it could “open the door for other people to think they can get away with doing that and worse”.
In the aftermath of his bombshell court appearance, Trump raged the US is “going to hell”.
The 76-year-old is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination and will likely take on his nemesis Joe Biden in 2024
His indictment is seen by many analysts as handing him the ticket – cauterising his hardline base who may have been turning towards rival Ron DeSantis.
Trump is using his legal trouble as a way to rile up his diehard supporters.
But it remains to be seen how his arrest will play with key swing voters who were turned off by Trump in 2020.
Stormy also revealed “one in ten” messages she receives are death threats and she wishes she’d never met Trump.
She added: “They [the messages] would always be from an account somebody created just to do that with no followers, hidden.
“Now it’s different, the tone is different.
“And they are way more specific and graphic. They seem to be more serious in a way.
“They’re not hiding – these people are using their phone numbers, and their actual emails and their actual Twitter accounts – which then makes it worse because they actually have followers.
“They genuinely feel they are doing something right. It makes you become paranoid.”
After returning home to his Mar-a-Lago resort from New York on Tuesday, Trump gave a venomous speech.
Walking out to “God Bless the USA”, Trump lashed out at the judge presiding over his case – calling him “the real criminal”.
He accused Juan Merchan of being a “Trump-hating judge with a Trump-hating wife and family” – and said the case against him was “an insult to our country”.
“The only crime I have committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it,” he said.
Trump called for the “ridiculous” case to be “dropped immediately”.
And he suggested he lost the 2020 US election unfairly “because our country is going to hell”.
Trump denies the claim by Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, that they had sex in 2006.
The alleged affair came a year after he had married wife Melania – and four months after she gave birth to their son Barron.
He denies wrongdoing related to the £104,000 ($130,000) payment his former lawyer Michael Cohen allegedly gave Daniels to keep quiet about the tryst before the 2016 presidential election.
Trump acknowledged reimbursing him, and this is not illegal, but the record of the payment claimed it was for legal fees.
Prosecutors argue this amounts to falsifying business records, with each cheque Trump wrote counted as separate charges.
New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg said he cannot allow “businesses to cover up criminal conduct”.
The historic case marks the first time a former president has been criminally charged.
The indictment focused on Trump’s reimbursement checks to Cohen – with details of the other charges mostly kept under wraps.
But a separate filing by prosecutors detailed similar schemes Trump allegedly orchestrated to silence two other people who said they had damaging information about him.
You can watch the full interview on the Piers Morgan Uncensored YouTube channel.
