Stormy Daniels breaks her media silence and says Melania should leave Donald Trump

• Stormy Daniels has said Melania Trump should leave her former-president husband.
• Donald Trump was found guilty of all 34 felony counts related to a hush-money payment to Daniels.
• Daniels said he should go to prison or become a "volunteer punching bag at a women's shelter."

Stormy Daniels has said Melania Trump should leave Donald Trump , breaking the media silence she'd held since the former president was convicted on Thursday.

"I don't know what their agreement may or may not be, but Melania needs to leave him. Not because of what he did with me or other women but because he is a convicted felon," the adult-film star said in an interview with The Mirror published over the weekend.

On Thursday, Trump was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a hush-money payment made to Daniels, who says she had a sexual encounter with him in 2006.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, didn't mince her words about Trump in the interview.

"It's been proven he is abusive; he was found liable for sexual assault and tax fraud and is now a criminal," Daniels told The Mirror. "He's neither Teflon Don nor Teflon Con anymore."

Representatives for Trump didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.

While Trump has appeared defiant in the face of his growing legal problems, staffers say he's often afraid of Melania Trump's reactions to them.

The Washington Post reporter Mary Jordan wrote in her book " The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump " that when Trump's infamous "Access Hollywood" tape was released in 2016, he took two hours before finally deciding to see his wife, according to an excerpt .

In November 2022, Trump's former aide Kellyanne Conway testified to the House panel investigating the Capitol riot that Melania Trump was the only person Trump feared .

"He listens to many of us, but he reserves fear for one person, Melania Trump," Conway said.

The former president told Fox News' " Fox & Friends " in a pre-taped interview that aired Sunday that the Manhattan trial had taken a toll on his wife.

"She's fine, but I think it's very hard for her. I mean, she's fine, but she has to read all this crap," Trump said.

Thursday's conviction makes Trump the first former US president to become a felon.

Trump could face a maximum sentence of up to four years in prison, though legal experts say he's unlikely to spend any time behind bars .

"I think he should be sentenced to jail and some community service working for the less fortunate or being the volunteer punching bag at a women's shelter," Daniels told The Mirror.

Trump's recent conviction doesn't seem to have dampened his appeal to his supporters, who continue to view him as the GOP's best shot at retaking the White House in November.

In fact, the Trump campaign's fundraising page crashed less than an hour after he was convicted on Thursday. The page was restored about half an hour later.

"The American people see through Crooked Joe Biden's rigged show trial," Trump's campaign team said in a post on X . "So many Americans were moved to donate to President Trump's campaign that the WinRed pages went down."