When The Wall Street Journal first reported on the $130,000 in hush money that President Donald Trump’s longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid porn star Stormy Daniels, all parties involved maintained an air of deniability. At the time, Cohen even provided a letter allegedly signed by Daniels denying any “hush money” payment or any “sexual and/or romantic affair” with Trump. They weren’t counting on the other woman—the one Daniels and Trump invited over for that first encounter in Tahoe during the July 2006 American Century Championship gold tournament—to come forward.
Porn star Alana Evans, a close friend and Daniels’ then-neighbor, happened to be in Tahoe at the same time. Evans recounted exclusively to The Daily Beast the conversations she’d had with Daniels at the time, thus corroborating the Trump affair claim.
“Stormy calls me four or five times, by the last two phone calls she’s with Donald [Trump] and I can hear him, and he’s talking through the phone to me saying, ‘Oh come on Alana, let’s have some fun! Let’s have some fun! Come to the party, we’re waiting for you.’ And I was like, ‘OMG it’s Donald Trump!’” Evans previously recalled. “Men like him scare me because they have so much power and this was way before his presidential nomination. So I bailed on them and turned my phone off.” The next day Evans apologized for bailing, and asked Daniels how her night was. “She tells me, ‘All I’m going to say is: I ended up with Donald in his hotel room. Picture him chasing me around his hotel room in his tighty-whities.’”
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As an AVN Hall of Famer with over a decade in the porn business, Evans is accustomed to being a public figure. But when the statements she made about Trump went viral, the type of notoriety she encountered was shocking—some might even say life-changing. With one interview, she became “the other woman,” and the one person who could confirm the affair because she hadn’t signed an NDA or been paid off.
In a new interview, Evans opens up to The Daily Beast about life now, the death threats she’s received, and the extreme lengths some Trump fans will go to harass her. She’s also trying to take advantage of the platform she has now to educate fellow performers, attempting to make the adult industry a safer, healthier place to work.
When your statements about Trump and Stormy were first published, how did people in the adult industry handle it?
At the time this all happened, I’d been fighting to get our testing procedures updated, and I wasn’t well-liked at that moment because I was the voice speaking out, taking on the system with my union team. I went to a party and people I’d known for decades gave me the cold shoulder and didn’t want to be seen talking to me.
What about now, is that still happening?
It’s funny to me how all the media attention has made me likable again by performers who, only months before, acted like they didn’t like me—pretending to be my best friends again because they’re watching me on the news.
Has this kind of exposure had any other negative impacts?
I get death threats, threats about people coming to get me, emails that say I’ll be shown what happens to whores like me, and messages that I’m going to die. It’s amazing when you see someone’s profile on Twitter touting them as a Christian mom with children, who works in a library and pro Trump…and then they call me a piece of shit traitor whore whose mother should be ashamed of me. That’s common, and one of the nicer ones.
That has to be difficult, even knowing they’re trolls. How are you handling it?
Most of the time I can take it but some days are harder than others. I saw an ex member of the union engaging in conversations with my trolls because they enjoyed what the trolls were doing… that was brutal. I took pictures of it, because it was so awful. That brought me to tears. You really learn how nasty people are.
Have you had any other experiences like that from people you’ve worked with?
I had one performer call me tacky for talking about Stormy’s business. Another performer told me all I did was turn down a lucrative private and I needed to shut my mouth. That was rough. I couldn’t believe this was coming from women in the industry.
Has this new level of notoriety impacted your business at all?
When the story first broke I started getting calls from weird user names—it was from my SextPanther page, which is the only site I use for texting and phone call services. They’d pay $10 just to get my phone number, and then pay by the minute. They were calling just to harass me. They were also paying to text me!
What was the strangest experience you’ve had with people paying to contact you this way?
I had one guy who wanted me to role-play, and he asked me to make up the details about what happened between Stormy and Trump. At that point I was thinking it was some sort of setup… I’m exclusive with Cams.com and I have people come into my chat room just to talk to me about it. More often than not I hear from my fans that they were at home watching the news with their family or friends and when my face popped up on MSNBC or CNN, they’d say, “Oh I know her,” without thinking about it and then have to explain.
So has this been financially beneficial in some ways?
I’ve gained more Twitter followers but I’m not really seeing much of a financial gain. It’s not what people think—I don’t get paid for any of the TV interviews. I’m not doing appearances or feature dancing because I just don’t feel safe. I am so thankful to have a job with Cams.com so I don’t have to leave my house. I couldn’t feel safe.
How else has this impacted your life? Are you taking other precautions now?
It’s changed how I deal with my life on social media. I don’t tweet about where I’m going. Sure, the death threats suck but I’m also thankful it is so public, so now any ideas about making us disappear isn’t going to happen. That’d be noticed.
Have there been any upsides to reaching a larger audience?
I’m using my new platform to get the message out about August Ames and what led to her suicide. I’m also using it to educate performers about industry testing, and now there’s an entire new group of people getting involved in these causes. It’s brought me an audience of performers—of women who may not have been noticed before, and now I can help be a voice for them.
How do you think this has changed the public perception of the adult industry?
There were a lot of deaths in our industry right around the time this was happening and the media was painting a picture of the problems in our industry. Let’s be real: We have these same mental health and addiction problems in society, and the industry is a reflection of that. That was the focus then but there’s been a shift. Now there’s this perception that porn stars could save the country from this presidency by speaking the truth.
Have you noticed any changes in how people seem to view women in the adult business?
It’s shifted how people are thinking about women in the industry. I get so many comments from people who say I am well spoken and intelligent, and they seem surprised. They see me as a person and I don’t think we are always viewed in that light.
Do you think people are rooting for Stormy?
People want Stormy to win. As far as they’re concerned, she’s the underdog. She represents so many women that have been mistreated or bullied and harassed by this particular person, so this is giving justice to many of those women.
Are you surprised to see how this story has blown up?
Back then, it was just a funny story; it wasn’t a big deal. Obviously. Stormy was telling people, Seth Rogen even knew about it. Now it may change the status of things happening in our country, and that’s overwhelming…
What are your thoughts on how Trump has handled it?
Lying and doing everything he could to cover it up made it a big deal—that’s what created this monster. I hope men in that position think about this. Trying to buy your way out of it will do nothing but cause trouble. He knows what he’s done and the women he’s paid but the funny thing is so do lots of other people.
