Beaufort, South Carolina – To most people, Danni Ashe was born at the age of 17. She appeared suddenly, out of thin air — a 5-foot-2-inch stripper with a 32FF bust.

She was never a toddler, never a child, never a ‘tween, a teenager only briefly. Ashe’s life began only after she was legally able to take off her clothes for money — money that’s made her a multimillionaire in the Internet pornography industry and, at one point, the most downloaded woman in the world, according to Guinness World Records.

But the city of Beaufort played a small part in that.

She was born here Jan. 16, 1968, the daughter of a Marine stationed at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island. Her parents, both from Seattle, were married briefly and separated unhappily, according to a short biography on Ashe’s Web site, danni.com. (Note: Link leads to Web site containing explicit images.)

Essentially, this is all that is known about her before she started stripping in the Seattle area when she turned 17 years old. And this is how Ashe hopes to keep it.

When contacted last week, one of Ashe’s representatives in California denied an interview request with the porn star.

“Confidentiality and anonymity in the adult-entertainment industry are paramount,” Christine Brodeur, a spokeswoman for Ashe, wrote in an e-mail to The Beaufort Gazette. “Because of Ms. Ashe’s global popularity, there have been numerous incidents of people trying to locate her, stalk her, etc.”

Today, Ashe is worth millions. She runs two companies out of her California headquarters: Danni’s Hard Drive, her Web site, and DHD Media, an Internet services company. In 2001, Guinness World Records named her the most downloaded woman in Internet history — a decree that led to a bitter dispute between Ashe and the former reigning Internet download champion, bikini babe Cindy Margolis.

Ashe was ultimately deemed the true champion, but Guinness has since abandoned tracking downloads as a record category because they’re largely impossible to count.

But nearly everything known about Ashe’s childhood has been written by her. On her Web site, she writes that her mother raised her alone in Seattle through the ’70s. It is unknown how much time she spent in Beaufort.

“My mom lived a life of rock festivals, drugs and free love,” Ashe wrote. “Unlike most children, I learned the facts of the birds and bees at an early age and was never taught to feel any shame about nudity or sex.”

At 5, she started selling drawings from her tricycle to neighbors. She moved on to peddling bouquets of flowers she picked from neighbors’ yards.

“I was a born entrepreneur who was told by my mother almost from day one that ‘MONEY = FREEDOM,'” she wrote. “And I knew, even in my single-digits, that freedom was what I wanted.”

Fast forward to 17: She hit the road as a stripper but retired from the club scene in the mid-’90s after being arrested in Jacksonville, Fla.

She started a Web site in 1996 with $8,000 in computer equipment and two books. Pretty soon, she had a minisoftcore pornography empire as thousands of fans flocked to her Web site. She was profiled in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Entertainment Tonight during the frenzied height of the ’90s Internet business bubble as a model for financial profitability.

Representatives for Ashe’s Web site would not say how many members belong to her site or how much revenue her business creates annually.

But that’s about it. Secrecy in the adult entertainment industry isn’t rare either, said Dan Miller, editor in chief of AVN.com, the Web site for Adult Video Magazine.

“That’s extremely common especially on the talent side — talent being people on the camera side performing,” he said.

Porn stars are sometimes forced to deal with aggressive and dangerous fans who can resort to stalking, Miller said, and sometimes knowing little about a star makes her more interesting, perhaps more approachable.

“These women like to maintain a sense of mystery,” he said. “They want to keep the fantasy alive, if you will — a desirable person on camera. If somebody knew too much about her they might not be a fan of her anymore.”

Locally, Ashe is largely unknown. Historic Beaufort Foundation, which runs several museums, had never heard of her.

The county library had nothing on her — but it was interested, said Grace Cordial, historical resources coordinator at the Beaufort County Library. As far as actors go, the library has files on two obscure performers: an old B-movie horror actress from Beaufort and a Broadway actress as well, Cordial said.

Although they do compile information on Beaufortonians of note who are still alive, most of the collection focuses on everything before 50 years ago, Cordial said.

“We’re interested in any interesting, native Beaufortonian, and people who have made an impact in their field of specialty,” she said, chuckling.

On Friday, a store manager named Kelvin at Video Warehouse of Beaufort said he didn’t know if the store carried any Danni Ashe movies, though it does carry adult titles.

“I don’t know. I don’t know the person. I have no idea.”