Telling her story. Nearly 15 years after Anna Nicole Smith‘s death, Netflix announced plans to release a documentary that explores her rise to stardom.
“A revelatory feature-length documentary about Anna Nicole Smith, featuring never-before-seen footage of the iconic Playboy and Guess jeans model, who blazed a trail through the ’90s before her tragic death at the age of 39,” the film’s logline read in a January 2022 press release.
The network noted that the exclusive footage will offer “a unique glimpse into her life out of the spotlight” by featuring clips from Smith’s loved ones.
After being raised in Texas as a child, Smith found fame when she landed her first Playboy cover in 1992. From there, the late actress’ life was documented in a short-lived reality series titled The Anna Nicole Show, which aired from 2002 to 2004.
In 1994, Smith’s personal life made headlines when she married J. Howard Marshall II — who was 63 years her senior at the time. The television personality, who had a son Daniel from a previous marriage, became a widow one year after she tied the knot with the oil tycoon. Following Marshall’s death, Smith ended up in a lengthy battle with his family members over his estate.
The Ally McBeal alum welcomed her daughter, Dannielynn, in September 2006 after previously being linked to Larry Birkhead and Howard K. Stern. Days after the birth of her second child, Smith’s son died in his mother’s hospital room from an overdose.
Five months after her son’s passing, Smith died of an accidental drug overdose at the age of 39. Shortly after her death, Birkhead and Stern fought for custody over her daughter. In April 2007, the photographer was granted full custody after a DNA test confirmed that he was Dannielynn’s biological father.
Since then, Birkhead has explained how little the public knew when it came to his relationship with Smith.
“People think it was like a one-night stand that I had with Anna and then I got lucky and won this DNA lottery, when it was, like, a two-year relationship with, admittedly, highs and lows,” the Kentucky native exclusively told Us Weekly in January 2020. “But it was a crazy love story.”
Birkhead, who relocated with his daughter from California to his hometown, also opened up about how Dannielynn resembles her late mother.
“She’s got some personality traits of her mom’s, and she’s funny, but I think she’s a good mix of the two of us,” he told Us, adding that his child has started to show an interest in acting. “I brought her up and we saw the Beetlejuice play, and she’s kind of bitten by the theater bug. She’s taken a couple of classes in school for theater, which I was surprised by, but it’s something that she’s starting to show a little interest in.”
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