Money, drugs, a secret lesbian lover – a new Netflix documentary is full of bombshell claims about doomed Playboy star Anna Nicole Smith. Photo / Getty Images
Money, drugs, a secret lesbian lover – a new Netflix documentary is full of bombshell claims about doomed Playboy star Anna Nicole Smith. Photo / Getty Images
Disclaimer: mentions sexual assault and drug use
Anna Nicole Smith made front page news in 1994 when she wed 89-year-old oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall and went after his riches when he died 13 months later.
However, the Playboy star’s pursuit of fame and fortune ultimately led to her demise. The model developed a drug addiction, her son tragically died three days after she gave birth to her daughter, and she died from an accidental drug overdose at the young age of 39, according to The Sun.
Smith’s struggle with substances transformed the star into a “manipulative, egotistical monster” who allegedly used her husband “like an ATM” and made up false tales of childhood abuse because “sad stories make money”, the new Netflix documentary reveals.
Anna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me shows interviews with her family, friends and employees, as well as archive footage from her late mother Virgie.
Smith’s best friend Melissa Byrum (referred to as Missy) first met the star at a strip club where they both worked. She claims to have had a secret affair with Smith when they were living in a house together that Marshall bought for her, according to the documentary.
Anna Nicole Smith launching her New Clothing Line at Body English Night Club at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas. Photo / Getty Images
“I was her first female lover,” revealed Missy. “I was really in love with her.”
However, according to Byrum, Smith’s quest for money and drugs made her a “selfish” person with “no compassion”.
The documentary starts with a clip of Smith saying: “I would advise people to follow their dreams. They can come true – I’m living proof.”
However, the all-American, rags-to-riches tale that the model was captivated by ultimately resulted in the rejection of her family, the loss of her pals and support system and, at the very end, her life.
Anna Nicole Smith was born Vickie Lynn Hogan in Mexia, Texas: a small Bible-belt town. Both her parents were police officers.
The star would later declare that her mother was a tyrant and would subject her daughter to “beatings, whippings and rape” while she was growing up.
Smith reveals in the film: “I wasn’t very popular in high school, although I was flat-chested. Now I have curves.”
However, her uncle, George Beal, recounted a memory of Smith practising her cheerleader routines in the front garden, “waving at the boys going by, trying to get their attention”.
Smith’s mum, Virgie Arthur, died in 2018. Prior to her death, she revealed: “She loved being the centre of attention. We would go to the mall and there would be 50 men and boys walking behind us.”
Anna Nicole Smith and her son Daniel in 1996. Photo / Getty Images
Anna Nicole Smith married local boy Billy Wayne Smith, 16, when she was 17. However, the star claimed her husband was “jealous” and would lock her inside their home when he went to work during the day.
She ran away from the marriage when her son Daniel, who was born in 1986, was six months old. Smith moved to Houston and ended up auditioning at the strip club where she met Byrum. Byrum says that millionaires would tuck hundreds of dollars into the girls’ underwear at the joint.
“In walks this gorgeous girl, and one of the girls said, ‘God, she’s good-looking, but they’re gonna eat her alive,’” Byrum shared.
“Anna was very naive. They hired her but she couldn’t dance. She was like an emu trying to fly.”
“Nobody needed to give her any pointers on how to attract a man. She knew what she was doing.
“Right off the bat she was making a lot of money”, said Byrum, who took the newcomer under her wing.
Anna Nicole Smith arrives at the 2004 World Music Awards . Photo / Getty Images
After sharing her own stories of abuse to Smith, Smith allegedly told Byrum that her mum would “handcuff her to the bed for days and beat her mercilessly”.
“She told me she was going to be a famous model,” Byrum revealed. “She was convinced the only thing holding her back was her boobs.”
Smith, who referred to herself as Nikki at the time, saved her own money and paid for a boob job.
However, the procedure left her in a lot of pain which resulted in her taking a variety of prescription drugs - including valium.
The then-24-year-old first danced with widower and billionaire J. Howard Marshall in 1991 at the strip club - he was 86 years old.
The oil tycoon showered her with lavish presents and even gifted her a mansion with six bedrooms, stables, a basketball court, pool and a guesthouse.
Anna Nicole Smith wins Playmate of the Year. Photo / Getty Images
Marshall begged Smith to marry him for two years, but she said no to the billionaire because she wanted to make a name of herself first - and she didn’t want “people calling me a gold digger”.
She was finally thrown into the spotlight when Marilyn Grabowski - Playboy’s picture editor - invited her to a photo shoot in Los Angeles.
However, when they were about to take the pictures, Smith was found huddled in a corner, wrapped in a bedsheet and overwhelmed with fear.
Smith, who was a huge fan of Marilyn Monroe, brought a record of Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend to the shoot.
Grabowski said: “I put that music on and all of a sudden she changed. She was a different person.”
The Playboy snaps and a Playmate Of The Month spread resulted in a contract with Guess Jeans, and Smith was soon referred to as the new Claudia Schiffer.
American model, actress and television personality Anna Nicole Smith poses for Guess? Sportswear. Photo / Getty Images
She revealed later on that she never felt ashamed for posing nude for the magazine as Playboy “happened to make my dream come true”.
The star officially changed her name to Anna Nicole and booked her first film in 1994, The Hudsucker Proxy by the Coen brothers, which was quickly followed by Naked Gun 33 1⁄3.
As Smith started getting busy, Byrum moved in to help look after her son Daniel - which is when she claims she and Smith became romantically involved. “She had an insatiable appetite for sex,” Byrum said.
Like Monroe, Smith was obsessed with finding her father, who she never had contact with, Eugene Hogan.
Smith used a private detective to track him down and flew him and her half-brother to California, where she showed them around the Playboy mansion and Disneyland. However, the long-awaited reunion went sour very quickly.
Donnie Hogan revealed: “I wanted her to know the truth. My father’s a monster. When I was about 16, he told me he raped his wife’s sister. She was a child.”
Donald Eugene Hogan, Anna Nicole Smith's father, is escorted to Judge Seidlin's courtroom at the Broward County Courthouse in 2007. Photo / Getty Images
Later on, Smith told Byrum that her dad “tried to have sex with her”.
The star started to spiral and was taken to hospital in 1993 after an accidental drug overdose.
Byrum said: “She’s turning up to shoots looking haggard. She’s no longer grateful to Mr Marshall. She’s treating him like an ATM.
“You’re watching this person that you love morph into this egotistical monster, a full-blown drug addict. My friend that loved me wasn’t there any more. There was no compassion. So I quit. We were done.”
Still struggling with her addiction to drugs, the model wed wheelchair-bound Marshall in 1994, however lawyer Kelly Moore maintains that Smith was not a gold digger.
“They were both extraordinary people that other people were always trying to take pieces of.
26 year old Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith and 89 year old billionaire oil tycoon J Howard Marshall on their wedding day in 1994. Their marriage lasted fourteen months until Marshall's death in 1995. pic.twitter.com/e7PLIBcJxv
“Howard and Anna were protection for each other,” she said.
But a recording of one of her husband’s phone calls revealed the truth. Her desperate husband was heard begging Smith to call him back, saying: “I love you. I’m trying to find you.”
Smith sounded groggy and out of it when she finally picked up the phone and told Marshall she would talk to him tomorrow as “I won’t remember tonight”.
After just 13 months of marriage, 90-year-old Marshall died. The billionaire allegedly promised Smith half of his US$1.6 billion ($2.6 billion) fortune before his death.
A fierce legal battle ensued with Marshall’s son E. Pierce Marshall, who revealed to the court that she had spent at least US$12 million ($19.2 million) of her late husband’s money.
Anna Nicole Smith arrives with her attorney, Howard Stern at the U.S. Supreme Court. Photo / Getty Images
Smith explained: “It’s very expensive to be me.”
During the court case – which Smith eventually lost – she began seeing lawyer Howard K Stern, who Kelly Moore described as “a low-level lawyer looking for a big payday”.
The lost court case left the star broke, which resulted in her signing on to do a reality TV show for E! called The Anna Nicole Smith Show.
Smith then developed an eating disorder and weighed in at about 130kg. Diet firm Trimspa signed a deal with the widow who then started eating nothing for days and lived off diet pills and drugs.
Byrum recounted hearing an interview in which Smith said she had run away from home on account of being repeatedly raped and beaten.
She said: “I was shocked because I knew that was not her childhood. That was my childhood – exactly the way I had relayed it to her.”
Anna Nicole Smith during Anna Nicole Smith, Jane's Addiction and Snoop Dogg Visit The Xbox Booth at E3 at Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles. Photo / Getty Images
In archive footage, her mother said: “One time I asked her, ‘Why do you tell such lies?’
“She said, ‘I wish you could understand that I make more money telling sad stories than I make telling good stories.’”
More controversy around the star erupted when she became pregnant with daughter Dannielynn in 2005, which sparked a debate over who the father was between four men.
Along with Stern, former bodyguard Alexander Denk claimed to be the father, as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor’s husband, Frederic Prinz von Anhalt, who revealed he had had a 10-year affair with Smith.
Eventually, photographer Larry Birkhead was proven to be the dad of Dannielynn and won custody of the child.
However, at this time, Smith’s son Daniel, who had recently had a breakdown, was falling into a drug addiction similarly to his mother.
The day after Dannielynn was born, the 20-year-old visited his mother and baby sister in the hospital and, while he was there, died as a result of a drug overdose.
“She told me all the time that she was going to die young,” Byrum revealed.
“I should have believed it.”
Dannielynn Smith (Anna Nicole Smith's daughter) and Larry Birkhead arrive at the Launch celebration party for The Simpson's Ride at Universal Studios Hollywood. Photo / Getty Images
Sexual Harm
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