Hollywood blonde bombshell Anna Nicole Smith graced fans with racy Playboy photoshoots and exciting acting roles, including starring in her own TV show and Kanye West's New Workout Plan music video.
She hit headlines after her surprising marriage to American billionaire James Howard Marshall when she was 26 and he was 89. Their infamous wedding photos rocked showbiz around the world and saw Anna accused of being gold-digger.
Following Marshall's death in 1995, a year after the pair wed, Anna opened a length legal battle over a share for his $1.6 billion estate. The case was escalated to the United States Supreme Court and won.
READ MORE: Katie Price is 'queen of sexy I'm A Celeb shower scenes' thanks to 'silicone boobs'
Despite her fame and success, Anna suffered a tragic and untimely death after a series of unfortunate events throughout her life.
Bankruptcy
During her 11-year legal battle over her late husband's inheritance, Anna was forced to file for bankruptcy after her son's nanny filed a suit against her for sexual harassment. The actress missed several depositions, which resulted in a $800,000 judgment against her.
On top of that, Marshall's son, E. Pierce Marshall, who had previously argued that his late father had showered his trophy wife in gifts and a lavish lifestyle, filed a defamation claim against her bankruptcy.
Pierce was angry at her claims that he had interfered with his father's intentions and blocked him from setting up the trust in Anna's name, isolating Marshall from his family.
'A pop culture curiosity'
In 2002, Anna invited a film crew to document her life for her own reality TV show called The Anna Nicole Show which featured on E! By this point she was in a difficult financial state after lavish shopping sprees and the battle for her deceased husband's fortune.
The show transformed the star into a "pop culture curiosity" and much of the focus was on Anna's weight gain and her struggle for acting and modelling roles.
The show only last 14 episode and Anna soon became known for her bizarre antics on the show, including spurting unintentional hilarious statements, running errands as if she was under water and slurring her words.
Struggles with mental health
Anna's psychiatrist Dr. Nathalie Maullin said she believed Anna had borderline personality disorder and was addicted to prescription drugs.
During a testimony in 2010, Maullin recalled Anna's hospital visit in 2006 while she was pregnant with her daughter, Dannielynn.
Maullin, who was on shift at the time, said that Anna came in suffering with withdrawal from anti-anxiety drug Xanax and the painkiller Methadone after going "cold turkey" over concerns for her baby.
The psychiatrist revealed the drugs, which had been prescribed by Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, were "overkill" for the pain Anna had described.
Maullin said: "My thoughts were these were very hard core medications to be giving for the kind of pain she was demonstrating. She was on medication that seemed like overkill for the type of pain she was in."
Tragic loss of son
Anna's son, Daniel Wayne Smith, died while visiting Anna and her new baby. The autopsy found that the cause of death was an accidental drug overdose, consisting of a combination of drugs including methadone and antidepressants.
Security in Anna's house indicated that Daniel, 20, had taken his mother's methadone and lost around twenty pounds before his death.
Guess founder, Paul Marciano explained how he could tell Anna became "fragile" after her son's death.
"She had such a magnetic personality, but you could see that she was fragile," he said.
"She started taking sleeping pills because she couldn't sleep and mixing alcohol with them. I stopped working with her because I couldn't deal with that. I said, 'We're done.' After that she met the wrong people, and I think that was it," Paul admitted.
Accidental death
Anna died soon after she was found unresponsive on February 8, 2007. Anna had taken a lethal cocktail of prescription drugs in a room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida, with nine different drugs being found in her system.
Most notably, her autopsy revealed she had chloral hydrate in her system, and noted the similarity between her death and Marilyn, who was also found to have chloral hydrate in her system.
Anna had been regularly compared to Marilyn throughout her career.
The wife of her bodyguard performed CPR for 15 minutes until her bodyguard took over. After paramedics took Anna to hospital, she was declared dead on arrival.
The report found that the ambulance arrived at the hotel at 1.46pm but didn't get to the hospital until 2.43pm, with Anna being declared dead on arrival.
No illegal drugs were found in her system but Anna's sleeping medication was the 'major component' that led to her death. Her autopsy also revealed that she'd been suffering with depression following the death of her son five months prior.
Due to her son's suspicious death just five months earlier and the sudden nature of her death, there had been speculation about whether there was criminal activity involved.
For more of the latest showbiz news from Daily Star, make sure you sign up to one of our newsletters here.
READ NEXT:
Molly-Mae Hague's fans distracted by the same thing as she jets home from Dubai
Katie Price spills out of tiny plunging top after being dumped by Carl Woods
Netflix viewers left in floods of tears over new Jason Momoa movie Slumberland
Source: Read Full Article
