Was Anna Nicole Smith's Controversial Marriage To J. Howard Marshall II Real Or An Act?

With her bodacious bod, blonde bob, emotional fragility, and natural beauty, it's easy to see why Anna Nicole Smith was compared to Marilyn Monroe. Sadly, her life was also filled with tragedy and cut short just like that of her idol. Anna Nicole became a controversial figure after she married multi-billionaire J. Howard Marshall II, who was ailing in health and old enough to be her great-grandfather. Many questioned her motives for marrying the oil magnate. They scoffed over whether the union was real or just an act, as the age difference between Anna Nicole and Marshall was considerable.

People reported that the two first locked eyes at Gigi's, a Houston strip club where Anna Nicole worked in 1991. Marshall's fiancée, another adult dancer, Jewell Dianne "Lady" Walker, had died from plastic surgery complications just three months prior. They'd embarked on an affair while he was married to his second wife, Bettye Bohannon, and he'd lavished Walker with extravagant, over-the-top gifts. Meanwhile, Anna Nicole was a divorcée and single mom who danced to support her young son, Daniel Smith.

She was 23, and Marshall was 86 when they first met. According to Interview, he immediately fell for Anna Nicole, handing her $1,000 over lunch the next day and telling her she never needed to dance again. Marshall began supporting Anna Nicole and showered her with pricey presents like jewelry and a Rolls Royce. So, was Anna Nicole Smith's controversial marriage to J. Howard Marshall II real or just an act?

They say that fact is stranger than fiction, and that's certainly the case regarding the untold truth of Anna Nicole Smith. Given their age and financial disparity, it's easy to understand why some presumed Anna Nicole only married J. Howard Marshall II for the Benjamins. Still, she insisted it was not so. "I saw a very sick man, physically ailing, and I just wanted to talk with him, really," Anna Nicole told Larry King. "There was no physical attraction at all [on my behalf] ever," she admitted.

However, Anna Nicole didn't struggle to be intimate with the octogenarian. "I loved him very much," she continued. "I loved him so much for what he did for me and my son." Anna Nicole said Marshall proposed "within a week," but she refused as she "wanted to try to make something out of my life before."

Her claims were backed up by Larry Birkhead, the future father of Anna Nicole's daughter, Dannielynn Birkhead. He discussed his feelings about Anna Nicole's marriage to Marshall with ABC News. Birkhead noted Anna Nicole had lived a life of poverty and struggled as a single mom before meeting Marshall. "That was no act," he said of the marriage. "She genuinely [had] some kind of a deep love for him. Now, I don't know if it was the kind of, you know, physical type of thing, but it was what he did for her and what he did for Daniel and that he changed her life."

J. Howard Marshall II's family fought tooth and nail to stop Anna Nicole Smith from inheriting her husband's fortune after his death. The couple was married for just over a year when the billionaire died in 1995. Forbes reported that the businessman had never included Anna Nicole in his will, so after his death, she teamed up with his youngest son J. Howard Marshall III — who'd been cut out of his father's inheritance — to fight for the estate.

At first, a Texas court ruled that the two weren't entitled to anything and that Howard II's eldest son, Pierce Marshall, should retain all rights to his father's fortune. However, after Anna Nicole filed for bankruptcy in California, blaming Pierce for blocking her rightful inheritance, the court awarded her $474 million — a decision ultimately overturned by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. And that was just the beginning of the bitter battle.

NBC News reported that the fight over the $1.6 billion fortune continued even after Anna Nicole's untimely death from an accidental overdose in 2007. The model, whose real name was Vickie Lynn Marshall (née Hogan), had filed court documents claiming Marshall II vowed to leave her $300 million following his passing. However, a Houston jury ruled to uphold the original will. Despite numerous appeals, an Orange County federal judge finally ended the dispute in August 2014, decreeing that Anna Nicole's estate was not entitled to any of her late husband's inheritance.