She dumped the Reagan name, using her mother's maiden name instead, to symbolize her disgust with her father's politics
She was romantically involved with Bernie Leadon of the Eagles for a time in the 1970s . They co-wrote the song "I Wish You Peace," which appeared on the Eagles' One of These Nights album despite the objections of the rest of the Eagles, especially Don Henley
She was politically liberal, she smoked marijuana
she has a pro-choice viewpoint on abortion, she supports gay rights, and opposes nuclear weapons.
She wrote accounts of her life that did not portray her family in a positive light, and an autobiography, The Way I See It, which contained the revelations that her father was cold, distant, and aloof to everyone except his wife.
It also contained accusations of child abuse by her mother. Davis revealed that she had undergone sterilization so that she could not bear children, reasoning that this would stop the cycle of abuse.
Her first novel, Homefront, was published in 1986. It was considered controversial because she included fictionalized events from her own life.
Davis posed for Playboy magazine in 1994, although the family was against the act, believing Playboy to be nothing more than exploitative pornography.
She married her yoga instructor Paul Grilley in 1984, but they divorced in 1990.
She was active in the nuclear freeze movement
She also starred in her own direct-to-video "Playboy Celebrity Centerfold", which showed her cavorting in outdoorsey lesbian settings, along with a tender solo masturbation passage.