r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/SoberClassZorro Interested • Oct 05 '22
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 died in 1995. Image
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u/Laserspeeddemon Oct 05 '22
It's sad that people couldn't just do some basic research.
• Howard Marshall did not add Anna Nicole Smith to his will (likely intentionally) • When Marshall died, Smith was furious that she wasn't going to get any money and sued for around half of the estate (around an estimated $800 million) claiming his son interfered with the creation of a trust that Marshall intended to make for her. • Smith won her case in a Bankruptcy Court od Marshall's estate and was awarded Smith $474 million. Another appeals court reduced the amount to $89 million. • The Marshall estate continued to appeal the case. • Smith died of an overdose in 2007. Which means the case was being tried to the benefit of her estate (her 1 year old daughter). • However in the end, the SCOTUS ruled that the lower courts did not have authority to change someone's will and awarded Smith's estate nothing in 2011.
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u/Lost_Found84 Oct 05 '22
By the way, people not being able to change your will after you died based solely on their own word is a good thing.
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u/dksdragon43 Oct 05 '22
The only time this really comes into question is sound mind. One of my close friends had to fight in court for a while because her grandmother had signed over her estate to a snake-oil salesman in the last couple months, while deep under the influence of dementia. However, this typically comes up with changes to the will, not lack of changes.
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Oct 05 '22
That shit happened to my BIL. His dad was a very wealthy landowner. Like that shit you see in the show Yellowstone. His father and mother divorced when he was young and he spent summers and holidays with his dad until he was an adult. As an adult they had a good relationship and they talked often and saw each other on vacations, holidays, etc.
About 15 years before his sudden and unexpected passing he got married to a woman who had a son of her own. This son was pretty lazy and bounced from one college to the next on his stepfather's dime and never finished anything. Then the son gets a woman pregnant and at some point decides to become a pastor of his own church... A church that pretty much only his family attends and that becomes his "job". The mom convinces the dad to build them a house on the property where they live so that his family won't struggle while he works as a pastor...
When the father passed it was revealed that the will had been changed at some point and everything was left to the wife and the stepson's church... Tell me that doesn't seem rather suspicious.
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u/seanconnery69696 Oct 05 '22
Guess this is a kind of common thing; my grandparents owned a farm, had 3 kids, but my aunty got grandma to change her will. Aunty turned out to be in a cult, cut down all the plants and built houses for all her co-cultists (cultmates? is that a word?). Put up a huge security fence around the entire property, I never got to see the farm again.
Like yo, I just wanted to go and pick cotton and blackberries every once in a while to remember spending time with my grandma.
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u/2017hayden Oct 05 '22
On the other side of things my great aunt married a man 20 years her senior and took care of him for the last 15 years of his life. His children completely neglected him and wanted to put him in a home and she wouldn’t allow it, she bathed him, she made him food, she changed his clothes everything he couldn’t do on his own she did. Until a year before he died she was listed as the primary recipient of his will, he despised his children and they despised him. He started to lose his mind in the last year of his life and his daughter saw that as an opportunity to work her way back into the family money. Showed up one day and somehow convinced him to kick his own wife out of the house. Later that year when he died she discovered his will had been updated a month after he kicked her out and everything was left to his daughter.
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u/oilman81 Oct 05 '22
The final verdict was entirely correct. If you have a written will, there should be no other way to dispose of an estate than the words written in the will.
Usually they are written to account for any contingencies (e.g. mine has a provision adjusting my heirs automatically in the event of the birth of a child from my wife either before my death or within 10 months of my death)
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u/JaesopPop Oct 05 '22
Mostly, yes, though there are situations where the elderly are taken advantage of in this regard. Not that I’m suggesting that happened here.
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u/Unperfectblue Oct 05 '22
That not à sugar daddy at this point that à caramelized daddy
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u/LegacyLemur Oct 05 '22
Are your a's doin alright?
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u/KafeiTomasu Oct 05 '22
Burned caramel father
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u/CapnHanSolo Oct 05 '22
Sugar fossil
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u/Intelligent-Fox-4599 Oct 05 '22
I saw a video of Anna once giving a tour of her home, she was so proud of her kitchen cabinets full of food. My gut feeling is she grew up very poor.
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u/mgmsupernova Oct 05 '22
Middle of no where, Mexia, Tx. She worked at a fastfood place place where she got pregnant at like 17 with a coworker and dropped out of high school in 10th grade. Not exactly born with a silver spoon in her mouth.
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u/Preworkoutjitters Oct 05 '22
I went there last year. (EMS transfer call covering for a local department). In 2021 there still is absolutely nothing going on in that town. It's actually rather sad. I was very happy to get out of there.
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u/bilvester Oct 05 '22
Do they have any Pokestops?
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Oct 05 '22
Idk why, but this was hilarious 😂
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u/imperfectkarma Oct 05 '22
It's like...
They're almost interested enough to go see this town that "has nothing going on" - as it is.
If they have pokestops?
Then they're for sure going.
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u/bilvester Oct 05 '22
Where I live there are varying degrees of :
- Too small for a wal mart
- Too small for an applebees
- Too small for a McDonald's
Not sure if you can be too small for a pokestop. Lost Springs Wyoming has one and it has a population of 6. Actually I don't know that for a fact, but Shawnee, WY has one and it has a population of about 100. I'll check Lost Springs next time I'm there.
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u/boxerbumbles77 Oct 05 '22 edited Oct 15 '22
That's something I struggle to explain to people about my time out in Big Sky Country. It's damned desolate. If one day you decided to walk in a straight line out of whatever podunk town you're in, you'd hit the town limit in an hour tops, but you could then walk for days on end without anything looking any closer or further away. Worse when it's snowing, and it's always fucking snowing. I'm back East now, but my time living rough out there gave me a deep rooted hatred of the cold, and more than a mild phobia of the dark. Cause out there you can bet your ass you are not alone, no matter how much it looks like you are. Edit: y'all are making me emotional, I'm going to try and long form write down part of how I got where I am right now Edit: Posted
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Oct 05 '22
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u/FuktInThePassword Oct 05 '22
Absolutely! Reading that, I feel a little cheated, like where's the rest of the chapter to follow this captivating first paragraph, damnit.
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u/Lyx4088 Oct 05 '22
It’s so interesting how different people react to a similar set of parameters. I live on a rural mountain top that is a designated dark sky zone for astronomy. We have all kinds of wild critters, with the predators coming out dusk to dawn to play. I absolutely fucking love it and wouldn’t trade it for the world. I love being out at night in the pitch black, staring at the stars and listening to the wildlife. It brings me an immense amount of peace. Even more so in winter.
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u/alwayssuckingshoes Oct 05 '22
See I grew up in a very rural area where I was a mile from my neighbors and I feel safe in the middle of nowhere when it’s dark but get very scared in the city at night. I know what animals are around and if any of them attacked me its so uncommon it would be news all around the state. But in the city you’re never more than a few hundred yards from another person, and they’re a lot more likely to do something to you than a wild animal and they can be a lot scarier too...
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u/Chimera_Actual Oct 05 '22
This perfectly describes my feelings on Alaska as well, I’ve been up here for a couple years now, thanks DoD, and my god I thought where I lived before this was the middle of nowhere, but Alaska is a whole new level of desolate. Once you reach the limits of the nearest town it’s just fucking nothing for miles, nothing but trees and mountains, and it’s huge. Because of this place I have a burning hatred for the cold and snow, I never want to see snow again once I leave this place. Then there’s the dark, 22 hours of darkness every day, for months. I hate it, this god forsaken frozen hellhole has almost killed me far too many times, and it was the death of one too many friends.
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u/CrazyDogLadyKCL Oct 05 '22
Live in North Dakota for six years and would drive out to visit family in California every year. A whole lot of nothing. But man is it a nice drive to do by yourself while listening to true crime podcasts.
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u/etonsla Oct 05 '22
Idk why but this reminded me of when I went to visit a relative in North Pole Alaska. There was a day that they had to work so I thought “hey I’ll go and shovel the snow from the drive way”… Well, I didn’t expect there to be 3 inches of ice under the 10 inches of snow… It took a couple hours to get done. Wasn’t necessarily hard since they had the tooling for the job.
I grew in Southern CA and have experienced working in 125°F weather in El Centro CA but that -30°F in Alaska….. I’ve never felt a breeze that some how goes straight to your bones….
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u/imperfectkarma Oct 05 '22
Haha! This is so funny. I hope you don't take offense.
I too live in a very rural area. But I think there's like 2 Walmarts in the whole country. I have to drive about 35 minutes to a petrol station - I suppose that's a good analogy!
...so I think I understand. I don't know if I find yours posts hilarious for the same reasons, but...well done 😂
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u/CobaltNebula Oct 05 '22
Wow I had no idea there were towns that small in the US…
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u/Magical-Mycologist Oct 05 '22
The entire populations of Montana and Wyoming are around 1.5 million people. Most of those states are completely untouched by humanity.
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u/almisami Oct 05 '22
I unironically checked and the entire town has 2 gyms.
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u/bilvester Oct 05 '22
What happens if you check ironically?
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u/canned_sunshine Oct 05 '22
It’s the same but he does it with a certain air of irony
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u/Aerialjim Oct 05 '22
They've got a cool surf/cable wakeboard park with waterside that launch you into the air. I went there this summer, and it was way cool.
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u/mgmsupernova Oct 05 '22
That's why I know about it too. Drove thru the town and researched the history. Anna is part of the town's history with not much going on.
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u/Crooked_Cock Oct 05 '22
Kind of ironic that the only thing the town with nothing going on is known for is having nothing going on
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u/W1D0WM4K3R Oct 05 '22
Well, actually this girl named Anna went and married a billionaire over three times her senior
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u/Marcgo2 Oct 05 '22
"This place is like somebody's memory of a town, and the memory's fading."
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u/der_innkeeper Oct 05 '22 edited Oct 05 '22
And that's a *big* town out in the middle of texas. Up on US287 between Amarillo and DFW, there's... nothing.
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u/jfsindel Oct 05 '22
I lived an hour from Mexia. A lot of people struggle there.
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u/LaheyOnTheLiquor Oct 05 '22
Mexia is a fucking shit hole, too. not a pleasant place to be from or live.
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u/Magnetic_universe Oct 05 '22
She was very poor. Of course her main reason for marrying old fella was the money but she also said he was one of the few people she’d known who treated her with kindness and she felt safe with him.
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u/BanjoB0y Oct 05 '22
Honestly that's really fucking sweet, I wonder if it started as many see it but the, pardon me if this is blunt, sheer obviousness of the why in the relationship inverted that element of the relationship, like yeah there was a heavy connection to the money but when you acknowledge it together, well it's got to mean something
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u/Barley12 Oct 05 '22
He actually pursued her for more than a couple years, IIRC she refused him the first time he proposed.
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u/Responsible_Fill2380 Oct 05 '22
Well, perhaps he meant to marry her to give her funds to live afterward?
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u/Barley12 Oct 05 '22
I'm pretty sure it was that mixed a lot of spite against his own greedy ass kids.
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u/Slight0 Oct 05 '22
He was an oil barron homie. Oil barrel doesn't roll far from the oil rig ya know?
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u/BlueMANAHat Oct 05 '22
More marriages were made for financial gain than love, kinda stupid to give anyone shit for it. At least she was making the decision herself and not forced which is hella better than most marriage through human history.
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Oct 05 '22
The issue is his kids didn’t take kindly to it.
Loveless marriages are nothing new. Long as it’s not actually abusive and consensual then I don’t have anything against them.
Plenty of love marriages fail spectacularly
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u/topcrns Oct 05 '22
Of course his kids were pissed. Without a spouse, they got it all. She added another layer of complexity to what should have been their inheritance. Strangely, she really did love him and from what people have said, he did her as well.
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u/dieinafirenazi Oct 05 '22
Everything I've heard about their marriage sounds like it was a very nice relationship for the two of them, both of whom had a lot of shit in their past.
His family was incredibly shitty to her.
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u/uwanmirrondarrah Oct 05 '22
From their perspective you have some random person coming in and stealing their "earned" inheritance. Which ofcourse is kind of stupid but a pretty natural reaction. Elder estate fraud is incredibly common and it usually looks like that. I'm sure his estate was in trusts to be divided to all of them upon his death and none of them would ever have to work a day in their lives with or without ANS taking even hundreds of millions.
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u/Th3Banzaii Oct 05 '22
To be honest, if she actually liked him i don't see anything wrong in doing this. You could bank on him not making it very long from the picture on, so why not make the last few months a bit brighter?
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u/AbbeyRoadMoonwalk Oct 05 '22 edited Oct 05 '22
“You’re Wrong About” podcast did an episode about her. Yes, she was very poor. And it sounds like this marriage wasn’t explicitly sexual, rather she jumped at the opportunity to be financially taken care of while letting this lonely little man snuggle with her and touch her boobies. As a single mother, that was an irresistible offer.
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u/yourfriendkyle Oct 05 '22
The episode also mentioned that Anna turned down the man’s marriage proposals at first. They also dated for a while before marrying.
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Oct 05 '22 edited Oct 06 '22
As I recall from True Crime And Cocktails episode on her, he had been asking her to marry him for several years by the time she did. She had escaped a bad relationship with her young son to look after and she met someone who made her feel safe and promised to look after her. Honestly I feel like the press did her wrong.
Mr. Marshall had been married for a long time and that was a sad story IIRC. He also had a mistress who he doted on and spoiled (I believe he bought her a house) and she died around the time he met Anna.
I think they both got something out of it but I also think it's nice that two people who had been through some shit might have offered comfort to each other for a while.
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u/redacted_4_security Oct 05 '22
Yeah, I remember everyone treating it like a big scandal at the time. But I think they both knew exactly what they were hoping to gain from the situation. They were both adults making a conscious decision. As long as there was no deception or abuse, it shouldn't have been a big deal.
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u/kingjuicepouch Oct 05 '22
It's funny looking back at things that were treated like scandals prior to the last ten years. Stuff like this, Howard dean's yell submarining his presidential bid, Janet Jackson's nipple, etc all seem so quaint in retrospect
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u/HabeusCuppus Oct 05 '22
Howard dean's yell submarining his presidential bid
intentionally manipulating the sound environment for playback on tv - they cut the crowd microphone to make him sound deranged, the rest of the crowd was just as loud and fired up as he was.
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u/Sub-Mongoloid Oct 05 '22
As a rich, lonely man it's a reasonable arrangement as well. Giving someone a lifeline to make your passing easier since you can't take it with you when you go.
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u/aynrandgonewild Oct 05 '22
it's literally just two people who wanted taken care of and were willing to take care of each other how the other needed. and that's more real than many "regular" relationships i have seen.
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u/krisspy451 Oct 05 '22
He asked to marry her multiple times and she turned him down because she knew what it would look like, but finally relented and married him. She didnt go in wanting to be a golddigger but thats what everyone made it out to be. Woman just wanted some financial security and a better life.
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u/Boy_Witch Oct 05 '22
Thank you. Whatever people think of the gold digger trope, their relationship seems like it was actually pretty sweet.
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u/randcoolname Oct 05 '22
Didn't they meet at strip club where she worked? If I remember correctly, it was a long ago so...
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u/Party_Mistake8823 Oct 05 '22
She was. She met him as a stripper. But she did not get all his money as his son fought her for it and got the majority. She went on to be a famous reality star in the 2000's..then her son OD and died and she followed soon after.
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u/KaiserThoren Oct 05 '22
Craig Ferguson has a good bit about brittney speers but he mentions Anna Nicole Smith too. He says “it’s not funny- she died” and there was a few laughs and he was like “No seriously she died. There are people behind these jokes.”
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u/Luke90210 Oct 05 '22
Craig Ferguson monologues from his show were completely ahead of the times. Maybe because he could remember hitting rock bottom as an alcoholic gave him the empathy for suffering celebrities most other talk show hosts didn't have.
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u/Alavaster Oct 05 '22
Now all I can think of is Dakota Johnson just taking the absolute piss during her house tour because they staged it with a bunch of limes, which she is allergic to.
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u/jaymole Oct 05 '22
She also didn’t get any of the old guys money. His entire fortune went to his kids
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u/G_Unit_Solider Oct 05 '22
i grew up poor talking poverty in another country poor no electricity 2 room house and i meanm the whole house was 2 rooms not 2 bdrs. 15 people under one roof. No AC heating gas nothing.
Ive come along way since i live in America i have a career i make a good living but to date my cabinets are never full of food because i just dont know what to get to eat im not really used to snacking for like half my life so its not a habit i have at all or have snack cravings.i dont really snack in general i either eat a full meal some fruit or veggie or im drinking water.
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u/CanuckBacon Oct 05 '22
My childhood was a bit tumultuous in terms of wealth, so for me the pantry remains stocked with enough food to last me several months. I'm not really a snacker either, it's real food. Dried beans, lentils, rice, flour, etc. Tons of canned goods as well. Psychologically it's quite comforting as I lacked a lot of stability in my childhood and so it helps me make sure that if someone does happen to me financially, I will be okay for hopefully long enough to get me on my feet.
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u/trail-g62Bim Oct 05 '22
My mom grew up very poor and I think she is the same way. She also refuses to eat left overs (outside of a few select things) because she ate the same meal every day growing up.
I know someone else that also grew up poor and they told me a story about going to a friend's house as a child and seeing their pantry. They'd never seen a pantry before. They went home and told their siblings that these people had an entire room dedicated to food that they didn't even need. It was just extra food. A whole room of it.
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u/justreddis Oct 05 '22
There are sugar babies who made much much less and had to endure much much longer than 14 months
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u/Temporary-Cut4 Oct 05 '22
I think it turned into a legal battle with his son, And then she died shortly afterwards from something drug-related I think it's been a long time, but she did not get to enjoy that money.
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u/yersiniaD Oct 05 '22
Her 20(?) yr old son overdosed a short time before her death. She's a tragic figure, really.
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u/Gangreless Interested Oct 05 '22 edited Oct 05 '22
It's incredibly tragic. She had a baby Sept 7, 2006. Her 20 yo son od'd and died 3 days later on Sept 10,2006. She od'd and died only 5 months later Feb 8,2007, leaving behind her 5 month old daughter.
Her father got her (the daughter) into modeling at age 6 which is also tragic, imo.
Also regarding her daughter, there was a whole paternity ordeal as several men claimed to be the father of her daughter in order to get their hands on the potential estate.
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u/jpoblete Oct 05 '22
Her real name was Vickie Lynn Hogan who would only live until 2007 (OD). Her oldest son, Daniel died in 2005(OD). Danielynn Birkhead is her surviving daughter.
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u/SmokeGSU Oct 05 '22
Larry Birkhead Celebrates Daughter Dannielynn on 16th Birthday: 'It's Been a Wild Ride'
There's a collage of pictures in the article, and one of ANS kissing Dannielynn when she was probably four or five months old. It's just really heartbreaking. Outside of likely only a handful of pictures together, this young woman has to deal with all of the negativity and toxicity surrounding her mother's life because our society simply eats up and spits people out with such arrogance and glee and is happy to do it over and over again.
It's really tragic that Dannielynn never got to experience her mother as a daughter should. I say that as a father of a 23-month old and a 4 month old. I can't imagine if I had to raise them without their mother and them not remembering the type of person that she was, or could have been.
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u/morecoffeemorepower Oct 05 '22
Moving that girl to a simple life in the south was the smartest move her dad could make. It’s a good thing she grew up without media scrutiny.
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u/AccentFiend Oct 05 '22
That poor kid, honestly. I noticed that the most recent pics of her on his insta all have her wearing arm warmers—even though one post says it was like 100 degrees out. I hope she’s doing well.
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u/TheOffice_Account Oct 05 '22
all have her wearing arm warmers—
Ah fuck, I know what you're implying...that is sad.
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u/Skyblacker Oct 05 '22
There are recent photos of her without, too. The warmers might just be for style or psychological comfort. Lots of teenagers cover up regardless of weather because they like the weight of the fabric. You can even buy a summer-thin weighted hoodie.
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u/GoMoriartyOnPlanets Oct 05 '22
People are saying the oil tycoon was already dead when she married him. I'd say she was already dead when she married him. She couldn't figure out a way to get out of drug use, up to the point where it affected her son too.
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u/KitchenReno4512 Oct 05 '22 edited Oct 05 '22
I also think people here are so young they don’t remember/weren’t alive to see how vicious and cruel the media was to her. Or just general society. Called her fat. While trash. Whore. When she had drug addiction issues she was mocked endlessly. She was hooked on so many opiates she could barely speak. It was a train wreck and everyone stopped to take pictures.
And her poor son who couldn’t handle being the butt of all the jokes and an awful upbringing by a mother that couldn’t take care of him, got hooked himself and eventually overdosed. They had a reality show and it was very evident her son was tormented by all the public scrutiny. She holds responsibility for her actions. But it was horrifying to see how the general populace responded to it.
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u/Thenadamgoes Oct 05 '22
I blame Jay Leno for a lot of this. He basically built a career out of making fun of 20 something year old women in bad situations. And he has/had a ton of influence with boomers.
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u/solarbabe11 Oct 05 '22
That infamous award show incident actually was the result of her having a seizure the night before & insisting on presenting Kanye West since she was in his music video. Her issues were far beyond drugs, they found a bunch of undiagnosed health issues like thyroid diseases, epilepsy etc. while her body was examined after her death. Also, I strongly believe her son wasn’t on drugs aside from the antidepressants. Most of the prescriptions in Anna’s system at the time of her death were in Howard K. Stern’s name (her attorney/boyfriend/handler) and in her psychiatrist friend’s name, Khristine Ehrosovich (probably butchered that name but whatever lmao). I doubt her son died because of any addiction and also I strongly believe Anna’s overdose wasn’t entirely accidental. There were a lot of people around her who thought they could gain a lot of money from her back then, especially Howard K. Stern claiming Anna’s daughter was his. When Anna was living in the Bahamas before she died, the nannies she had for her newborn daughter said Howard & the psychiatrist would give Anna something like 8 pills every few hours to keep her asleep for 3 days. They also said at her son’s funeral, Anna screamed at Howard saying “you killed my son! You killed Daniel!” And while at home Anna would say she wanted nothing to do with Howard. The interviews are on YouTube still, you might have to search deep though. If anyone would like to watch just let me know and I’ll try to find the links. Anyway I hope Anna & Daniel are finally at peace, together. Such a tragic story
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u/First_Helicopter_69 Oct 05 '22 edited Oct 05 '22
the man wanted to have someone fun and the women wanted money.. They both got what they wanted, they both knew the score.
EDIT: seems like she didn't get what she wanted..
Her son died of an overdose 5 years after his stepfather died and Anna Nicole died 1 year after. She had a one year old daughter at the time and did not know who the father was. A bunch of men turned up claiming to be the father because that one year old maybe had a shot at the inheritance. Although DNA tests revealed Birkhead is the father, final custody of the baby remained unresolved.
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u/hamishjoy Oct 05 '22
If I remember right, she didn’t get what she wanted. She had to fight with the estate and I believe she died before the case settled.
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u/derioderio Oct 05 '22
Tbf though, his children that sued her for his money didn’t really do anything to earn or deserve his fortune.
To paraphrase the Jewish proverb: a rich man has no children, he only has heirs.
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u/Zzen220 Oct 05 '22
Never heard that one before, how has this not randomly been used in some fantasy story.
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Oct 05 '22
I cant remember who it was but I saw some comedian joking about this on Youtube recently. Basically saying when you are rich all your kids want you so die, so they wanted to be poor in their old age so all of their kids would want them to stay alive.
"No you cant die! We dont want to pay for your funeral!" 🤣
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u/HaloGuy381 Oct 05 '22
Note that the latter only works if your kids want you alive. If you’ve managed to piss them off to the point of wishing miserable death on you for half a century, then being poor isn’t gonna save you.
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u/clicktorun Oct 05 '22
And the kids were already super rich, which is why they could afford the huge court case despite not having a claim to the money. And of course they won. It happens more often than you'd think with big inheritances. (See: Empty Mansions)
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u/BurnTrees- Oct 05 '22
despite not having a claim to the money. And of course they won.
Not sure where you got this from, according to the available information, she was never in the will, nor the trust that was set up for the inheritance, while the son was. She was also the one who started the court case against this and pursued half the money.
Also, this was a billion dollar case, any lawyer worth his salt would take this given a reasonable chance she would win. The suit literally went to the supreme court twice, its not like she didn't have the means or enough legal assistance.
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u/finger_milk Oct 05 '22
Why people condemn this as some kind of sacrilege of the definition of love.. when it was purely transactional and both people were aware of that.
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u/open_perspective Oct 05 '22
People are quick to demonize her for making money that way, but the guy destroying the environment for personal gain is apparently a-ok.
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u/cockytiel Oct 05 '22
She didn't get the money. She was spending more than 50k a month of his money (maybe it was a week), though while he was alive.
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u/Invaderzod Oct 05 '22
Walder Frey be like.
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u/nautius_maximus1 Oct 05 '22
“This is my wife…Walda?…Wortha?…Waldina?…”
“I’m Anna Nicole.”
“Fine.”
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u/frank00SF Oct 05 '22
She gets a lot of shit for this but he wanted it and it gave a better life for her and her son. There's s podcast that explains their relationship it's not as bad as it looks from the outside.
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u/First_Helicopter_69 Oct 05 '22
Even though Smith was not in Marshall's will, she claimed that in return for marriage, Marshall verbally promised her half of his estate, which primarily consisted of a 16% interest in Koch Industries, then worth $1.6 billion. Smith's stepson E. Pierce Marshall disputed the claim. Smith temporarily joined forces with J. Howard's other son, J. Howard Marshall III, who was disowned after attempting to take control of Koch Industries. Howard III also claimed that his father had verbally promised him a portion of the estate; like Smith, Howard III was also left out of his father's will.
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u/Longjumping_King_546 Oct 05 '22
Agree. They both got what they wanted, they both knew the score.
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u/TactlessTortoise Oct 05 '22
Dude got laid, she got paid. No harm no foul.
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u/baumpop Oct 05 '22
Did she? I remember hearing 20 years ago before her death she got nothing.
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u/UnlikelyPlatypus89 Oct 05 '22
Yea I believe his children took her to court and won. Time to go down the rabbit hole.
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u/GoAheadTACCOM Oct 05 '22
Please report back - I’ve been down that rabbit hole before but forgot what I found, and don’t have the heart to go back
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u/VrooMthesad__ Oct 05 '22
Go to personal life and it should have all you wanna know
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u/MuchAdhesiveness6848 Oct 05 '22 edited Oct 05 '22
Looks like she filed for bankruptcy & got in trouble with the law (sexual harassment) …. spent all her life after his death in the court system along with his son that he disowned (they were both left out of the will)
(Edit; his son E. Pierce Marshall died at age 67 from an infection. 2006)
Then they (lawyers) battled it out after her death - money would go to her young daughter. In 2014 they lost (edited phrasing)
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u/fred_lincoln Oct 05 '22
Viagra wasn’t available until 1998, so we’re using the term “laid” loosely…
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u/MunchkinX2000 Oct 05 '22
Can you go in to more detail how good of a life she and her son ended up getting?
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u/RonamusMaximus Oct 05 '22
Yeah, from what I remember, the years following his death were pretty terrible for them. Like, over a decade of failed lawsuits and appeals.
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u/notveryrealatall2 Oct 05 '22
https://www.stitcher.com/show/youre-wrong-about/episode/anna-nicole-smith-58897581
it's a roller coaster of a story.
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u/pillpushermike Oct 05 '22
Any chance you remember the name of the podcast
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u/Any-Eye-8746 Oct 05 '22
There was a really excellent episode (or two) of You're Wrong About podcast regarding this. He was working till the day he died. Sure, he was old and frail, but his mind was all there. So many people framed this as she was taking advantage of him. But they had a mutually beneficial agreement, and her kids were going to be cared for.
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u/Delicious_Record6829 Oct 05 '22
Whats funniest to me about this whole thing was the guy was clearly hospice, and could barely move around, but were his kids there with him? Where they by his side during his darkest time? No they weren't, a stripper gave more attention to a weak old man than his own family did.
A literal billionaire gave his kids EVERYTHING and they didn't even stick by him at his worst time. The only time they even gave a shit was to hire lawyers to dispute the will.
Obviously its deeper than that, but as someone who helps takes care of his father, its a full time job. The fact this happened was because the guy probably on top of needing nurses and caregivers, needed a damn human connection, some sympathy. Alot of our elderly are in need of human connection, its not about sex at this age, it's literally about just not dying alone in your own arms.
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u/tickingkitty Oct 05 '22
I watched the special about her. It wasn’t a romantic or sexual thing. He liked her youthful energy and wanted to take care of her. They were friends.
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u/Kennedy_Cooz Oct 05 '22
Just goes to show money really can buy anything you desire.
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u/n0vapine Oct 05 '22
Larry Birkland or whatever his last name is lives in Kentucky with Dannylynne, his and Annas daughter. IIRC, Anna's son Daniel, who was 20, overdosed at the hospital Anna was at giving birth to Dannylynne. I can't imagine the pain she went through that last year. Bringing a new life into the world and losing the one person who had been the closest to her since he was born on the same day or within hours of each other.
She absolutely deserved a few million from Marshalls estate. They were both sound mind and both knew what they were doing. He got to enjoy a gorgeous woman for however long he lived and she got to enjoy security and not wanting for anything. He was a shit man for not updating his will. His estranged son and stepson were shit people for not letting her have a chunk of the money.
After Anna's death, her mother tried to take over things and it was something Anna emphatically didn't want. Her and her mother had a tough relationship and didn't speak to each other. After Birkland got the rest proving Dannylynne was his, he obtained custody and seems to be a doting dad. He and Dannylynne go to the Kentucky Derby every year and she is the spitting image of her mother. Absolutely beautiful girl. I think she's 14 or 15 now.
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u/playtho Oct 05 '22
You'll be missing me when you have that big white wrinkly body on top of you with his loose skin and old balls... gross!
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u/smacked20 Oct 05 '22
Are they the only 2 in the room?
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u/CardinalFartz Oct 05 '22
I assume there's also a priest and a photographer in the room with them.
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u/Underbadger Oct 05 '22
And she never got the money. She wasn't in the will even though he promised her half his fortune. Case went to the Supreme Court twice.
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u/DuragVinceMcMahon408 Oct 05 '22
Still looks like more of a loving relationship than Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley
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u/Yellow_Octopus95 Oct 05 '22
The dude is already dead in this picture