She was the American bombshell of the '90s. Pushing the boundaries of what women's bodies
were expected to look like at the time, Anna Nicole Smith was a voluptuous, blond and gorgeous
model that could have any man she wanted at the drop of a hat. But what she wanted most,
was fame, money and attention and she would do anything to get it. Little did she know
that this dark desire for love and attention would turn her American dream into an American
tragedy.
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The instability of her childhood, as well as her mother working long hours as a Police
Officer, left young Anna feeling neglected. So, like many young girls her age, she began
to rebel. Virgie, Anna's mother, couldn't handle Anna's rebellion, so she sent her off
to live with one of her aunts, who was over 300 miles away from her home.
Anna felt lost and abandoned. Her mother's rejection made her feel like she wasn't good
enough, and soon she began to tell people that her Aunt was really her mother, and Virgie
had stolen her and tried to raise her. This was just the beginning of the stories that
Anna started to tell. Depending on the day or the crowd of people, she would tell a different
story of how she grew up or where her hometown was. Friend's never knew when she was telling
the truth or when she was just making up another story.
If there's one thing that Anna knew, it was how to get attention. Perhaps it was because
she was an only child for five years, until her mother went on to marry her second husband
and had another four kids. So Anna went from being an only child to suddenly being the
oldest of five kids. Virgie was only 16 when she gave birth to Anna, and married her biological
father for just over a year, and after the divorce he made no effort to be part of his
daughter's life. It also turns out that her father was a convicted rapist.
She was aware of her family's dysfunction and wanted nothing more than to escape her
small hometown and change her life. Before she was struck by the lightning bolt of fame,
Anna Nicole Smith was known by her birth name, Vickie Lynn Hogan. She changed her name, just
like her role model Marylin Monroe. She wanted to shed everything about herself that reminded
her of her past. She was determined to make a name for herself; she wanted everyone to
know who she was … but she didn't want them to think of her as a small town girl with
a broken family. She wanted to be a star, just like Marylin Monroe, and she was willing
to do almost anything to make it happen.
After dropping out of high school in the 9th grade, Anna went to work at a fast-food restaurant,
where she met Billy Wayne Smith, her co-worker. The two seemed to hit it off, and Anna who
was just 18 at the time, decided to get married. The relationship was rocky from the start,
and the couple were very often bumping heads. Anna had a dream she wanted to fulfill, she
didn't want to be tied down in a small town, married to a fry-cook.
Despite Anna's feelings about her marriage, she was soon pregnant and gave birth to
her first son, Daniel. She was overwhelmed with love for her son that she never knew
existed, and from that moment all she wanted was to make sure she could provide for him
and give him the life that she never got to live.
Unfortunately, without a proper education, Anna was limited in her skills and didn't
have much work experience beyond the fast-food restaurant. Faced with very few options, she
divorced Billy, took her son with her and got a job as a stripper. Virgie was horrified
when she found out her daughter had started stripping, and as a Police Officer, she even
threatened to have the Strip Club closed down if the manager didn't fire Anna immediately.
But there was nothing anyone could do, if Anna wanted to do something, she was going
to do it, and not even the law could stop her.
As the years passed, Anna underwent two breast augmentations, convinced that if she had a
bigger bust, she'd be able to make more
money as a stripper. Unfortunately, her enlarged bust soon started to cause her serious back
pain. She faced constant problems with her implants, there was an incident where one
of the implants had burst and Anna needed to be rushed to the hospital to have it repaired.
The pain caused by her implants soon became constant and almost intolerable, and so she
turned to popping pain medication often taking far more than she actually needed.
One night Anna was working, she met oil tycoon, J. Howard Marshall. He paid for a dance, and
after just one night she found out that he was 89 years old and had been married twice
before, but none of that mattered to her. Overnight, Howard convinced Anna to stop working
at the strip club and to come and live with him, and she couldn't resist.
Howard showered her with gifts and introduced her to all the important people she needed
to know to finally launch her modeling career. Before she knew it, Anna was living the life
of her dreams in a house that had actually been lived in by her idol, Marylin Monroe.
She had always been fascinated with anything that had to do with the iconic blonde actress
from the '60s, from her looks, her career, and even with the way that she died. She had
even told a friend once that she was going to die before her 40's, just like her beloved
Marilyn did.
By the time Anna was 26, the whole world knew her name. She was a famous Playmate for the
Playboy magazine, she was a model for Guess, and one year even raked in a whopping $22
million. It seems as though all her dreams had come true, Anna had reached for the stars
and now she finally was one too.
Despite having become a household name, Anna couldn't help but still feel like she was
that small town girl that nobody loved. The money, the fame, the mansions, it was nothing
but a distraction from the emptiness that she felt inside. All Anna wanted was to be
loved, and sadly, she seemed to look in all the wrong places for it.
Still desperately seeking the approval of her mother, the model showered her family
with gifts too. One Christmas evening, Anna had invited everyone over in the family to
celebrate and had bought everyone an abundance of expensive gifts, some of which included
a TV for her mother and even a car for her Aunt. Unfortunately, her family didn't stay
long after the exchange of gifts, and left no more than half an hour later. Anna was
left alone, shattered and feeling more used than ever before. She began to think that
people only saw her worth in her money and her looks.
Soon, the pills Anna had been taking for her back pain, were being used far too often.
She would spend late nights out drinking, partying with friends, numbing her pain with
alcohol and whatever substances she could get her hands on. One night, it all seemed
to go too far when she overdosed on a mixture of prescription drugs and alcohol. She was
found alone and unconscious in her hotel room and was immediately rushed to the hospital.
Her overdose was plastered all over the tabloids the next day, and Anna was immediately dropped
by her acting and modeling agents. Nobody wanted to work with her anymore. Overnight,
Anna had been swept under the carpet of Hollywood to be forgotten, but there was one man who
still wanted her, and it was J. Howard Marshall. After several attempts, Anna finally accepted
his proposal and the couple were married in 1994.
The world was shocked, and the marriage seemed like a joke. What was Anna doing marrying
a man who was 27 years her senior? She was labeled a gold digger, and if it was even
possible, Hollywood turned its nose even higher up at the model.
But the marriage did not last long. Just 14 months after they were married, Marshall passed
away and in his will left absolutely nothing to Smith. A bitter legal battle ensued, with
Anna demanding her half of her now late husband's fortune. The court did not rule in her favor,
and soon she had to declare bankruptcy. With nowhere left to go, Anna fell into the arms
of her attorney, Howard K. Stern who seemed to want to help her get back onto her feet
and into the spotlight once again … all meanwhile, Anna's addiction to prescription
medication was worsening.
Over the next few years, Anna had a reality TV show that was canceled after three seasons.
As a last attempt to get back into the spotlight, Anna lost a lot of weight to try and regain
Hollywood's attention. For a while, it seemed to work. Soon Anna announced a pregnancy,
but never disclosed who the father was of her baby.
In 2006 she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Dannielynn. Two days after the birth
of her new bundle of joy, her 20-year-old son, Daniel came to visit her in the hospital.
In the most tragic turn of events, when Anna woke up she found her son dead in her hospital
room. What was supposed to be one of the happiest days of her life, quickly turned into a living
nightmare, and Anna felt like everything she ever held dear was taken away from her. Her
son had always been the centre of her world, and he was gone. It was later determined that
her beloved son had died of a drug overdose.
What followed was a heart-wrenching funeral, where Anna had even made an attempt to climb
into the casket with her son, confessing she no longer wanted to live. Her attorney, Howard
K. Stern, who had publicly claimed to be the father of Dannielynn, married Anna with what
the world deemed an impromptu and strange exchange of vows. It later turned out that
it was an ex-boyfriend, Larry Birkhead, who was the real father. It seemed that nothing
mattered to Anna anymore, and she slowly began to drown her sorrows with whatever pills she
could get her hands on. She was inconsolable, and soon became what friends described as
an empty vessel controlled by substances.
In February 2007, Anna Nicole Smith died in her hotel room from an overdose of prescription
medication. She had always wanted to follow in the footsteps of her idol, Marilyn Monroe,
but sadly it seems that she followed those footsteps too closely.