Danielle Staub

Danielle Staub (born Beverly Ann Merrill; July 29, 1962) is an American reality show actress, author, and singer. She is best known as a cast member on the Bravo reality series The Real Housewives of New Jersey. Staub’s book, The Naked Truth, was released on May 25, 2010.

Staub has also admitted that she was arrested in the 1980s on charges of drug possession and extortion. It has been reported that she was known as Beverly Ann Merrill and arrested in 1986, but cooperated with authorities. She has also received media attention for a sex tape which she claims was stolen from her, slated for release by Hustler Magazine.

Personal life
Staub is a divorced, single mother of two daughters, Christine (born in 1994) and Jillian (born in 1998). An active member of her local parish, Staub claims she attends mass regularly and engages her daughters in religious education and community involvement through the parish. She became well known to audiences on the reality show The Real Housewives of New Jersey, and the subject of some particular gossip when allegations surfaced of a party-girl past, supposedly involving drugs, sex and run-ins with the law.

Staub is among the subjects of a 1995 book entitled Cop Without a Badge by Charles Kipps. The book is based on stories from the life of Danielle’s first husband, Kevin Maher, and includes a 1986 mugshot of Danielle Staub (when she was known as Beverly Merrill). According to the official indictment filed with the United States District Court court on July 2, 1986, Beverly Ann Merrill was charged with eight felonies, including extortion, cocaine possession, and narcotics conspiracy. She agreed to plead guilty to one felony count of making a threatening telephone call “with intent to extort money.” She also admitted that she had worked as a paid escort. In November 1986, Danielle/Beverly was sentenced to five years probation and ordered to participate in a drug treatment program. The physician supervising that drug treatment program strongly urged at the end of its court-mandated duration that Staub continue to be monitored because of her previous “severe” drug use. The Smoking Gun has unearthed 26 pages of official court records on Staub’s 1986 arrest, plea bargain and sentencing, which was mentioned in Kevin Maher’s 1995 memoir, Cop Without A Badge.

On June 10, 2010, after being removed from the market six months earlier, Staub’s home was re-listed at a drastically reduced price, as “court-ordered” sale.

In June of 2010, Staub “came out” as a “full-fledged member of the gay community.”

Publications

 * The Naked Truth (autobiography, with Steven Priggé) 2010, Gallery; ISBN 978-1439182895