Anna Nicole Smith’s Legacy, Five Years Later
Can you believe it has been five whole years since the sudden death of model and star Anna Nicole Smith?
Anna Nicole was a lot of things in her life- model, pin-up, playmate and good-humored reality show star among them. While her antics on the show that bore her name later in her life were often mocked, the starlet managed a comeback and also to endear many fans years after she’d become famous more for her soap opera life story than her modeling work.
But in a world of understated glamor, Anna Nicole Smith wasn’t afraid to be the blondest blonde, wear the reddest lipstick, or let her boldly Southern style show through- and she became massively popular in her modern heyday because of it. But after marrying an elderly oil magnate- which was also a very Texan thing to do- her public persona became inextricably linked to the bitter court battle that ensued with the surviving heirs of J. Howard Marshall.
It was to be almost pointless, the years of fighting in court to secure her future- on February 8th, 2007, Anna Nicole died of an overdose of prescription drugs in a hotel room in Hollywood, Florida. Despondent over the death of her son Daniel- with whom she had been extremely close- Smith survived only a few months. And in another fiction-worthy turn, Daniel died visiting his mother in the maternity ward after she gave birth to daughter Dannielynn, now five. It was determined that Daniel died of a fatal drug interaction, and Anna Nicole was so distraught at his funeral that “she had them open the coffin and tried to climb inside.”
Five years on, daughter Dannielynn is now a reportedly well-adjusted five-year-old, living with father Larry Birkhead. Had she lived, Anna Nicole Smith would be 44 today.
