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For years, Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump have been locked in a public battle over an alleged sexual encounter, a hush-money deal paid by the former president's fixer, and their respective efforts to own the very public narrative.
Those tensions - and the salacious details that surround them - spilled out in court on Tuesday when Daniels took the stand in Trump's criminal trial to face him in court for the first time, according to a BBC report.
The former adult-film star, wearing loose-fitting black clothes and her hair pinned back, did not look at the former president for most of the day, except when she noted his dark blue suit after she was asked to point him out.
She spent much of her time on the stand recounting the sexual encounter that she claims to have had with the defendant - an act that sparked the allegations at the heart of the case - and pushing back at his legal team's scathing questions.
Trump, meanwhile, spent parts of her evidence cursing and shaking his head. That prompted a warning from the judge, according to court transcripts published at the end of the day.
The former president faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The charges stem from an alleged attempt to conceal a $130,000 payment to Daniels aimed to keep her quiet about the purported tryst.
He has pleaded not guilty and denies any sexual encounter with her, though he has acknowledged that his ex-lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid her a sum to keep quiet about her claims.
As the woman who received the money, Daniels was expected to appear in court at some point. But her testimony on Tuesday brought the most dramatic day of the trial yet.
She provided such lurid details about her encounter with Trump that the former president's lawyers called for a mistrial. Justice Juan Merchan acknowledged "there were some things that would have been better left unsaid" and warned prosecutors not to ask for specifics of such a personal nature.
The details, which she has previously shared, included her claim that they did not use a condom, that she spanked Trump with a magazine, and the answers she allegedly elicited from the former president about his wife.
The trial has already dredged up an underworld of tabloid publishers and Hollywood lawyers, one of whom was employed by Daniels to broker the hush payment. Her testimony on Tuesday appeared to be a step too far for the judge as well as Trump's defence team, however.
Early in the day, Trump's lawyers sought to have Justice Merchan limit what prosecutors could ask Daniels about their alleged sexual encounter in 2006, and the pair's two subsequent meetings.
The prosecution argued they needed to ask Daniels about it to establish intent for the pay-out. Despite tighter parameters, Daniels' scandalous details still spilled out in unusually long answers.