Did Anna Nicole Smith Inherit Her Husband's Fortune After His Death?

Anna Nicole Smith (born Vickie Lynn Hogan) was a talented model and actor who garnered great success prior to her death in 2007. Unfortunately, the bombshell is perhaps most widely remembered for her highly controversial marriage to an ultra-wealthy oil tycoon, J. Howard Marshall II — a man 63 years her senior. "The bride wore cleavage," People famously wrote about the shocking nuptials that took place in 1994 at the White Dove wedding chapel in Houston, Texas. During an interview with Texas Monthly, the owner of the wedding chapel, Pat Walker, reminisced on the couple's wedding day. "I'm not marrying him for his money," Smith reportedly told Walker. "He's been begging me to marry him for over four years. But I wanted to get my own career started first. Have my own money," the blushing bride declared proudly.

Alas, many did believe that the marriage was nothing more than a means to an end for Smith. Case in point: Marshall's adult children. But did Smith end up inheriting any of her husband's fortune after all? The answer might surprise you...

While many assumed that then-26-year-old Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith would eventually cash in on her marriage to J. Howard Marshall II, nothing could be further from the truth.

As reported by The New York Times, Smith's husband of fewer than two years died on August 5, 1995, at the Park Plaza Hospital in Houston. The kicker: his new will did not include his new bride. Per NBC News, Marshall's will left Smith out entirely and she was left with nothing save the 8 million worth of extravagant gifts that he had bestowed her prior to his death. Still, Smith wasn't going down without a fight.

It's reported that during a courtroom showdown wherein Smith fought tooth and nail to inherit half of her late husband's fortune, things got particularly contentious between Smith and Marshall's son, E.Pierce Marshall's attorney, Rusty Hardin. After declaring her love for her late husband on the stand, Hardin accused Smith of taking acting lessons. "Screw you, Rusty," Smith shouted back in a defiant act of retaliation for all the courtroom to hear, per BuzzFeed News. The highly-publicized battle went on for years and sadly, Smith tragically died in 2007 in the midst of it due to an accidental prescription drug overdose, per The New York Times. Finally, in 2010, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Marshall's son. In turn, Smith's only living child, her daughter Dannielynn Birkhead, was left nothing, per Reuters.

Although Dannielynn Birkhead did not inherit millions from her late mother, it's safe to say the talented young girl is going to be just fine!

Per People, Dannielynn modeled in the 2013 Guess campaign — just as her mother did many years before. "Dannielynn has the same playful spirit that her mother had on set," GUESS co-founder Paul Marciano gushed about Dannielynn. "She is a second-generation GUESS girl."

Aside from her penchant for modeling, it appears Dannielynn also inherited her mother's iconic taste. "Dannielynn has a very eclectic taste in music like her mom had," Dannielynn's father Larry Birkhead told RollingStone in 2021. "She likes everything from country, to rap and rock. She loves Aerosmith and Queen. She's kind of like an old soul when it comes to her taste in music. Anna's taste in music was just as wild. One minute she would turn on an Anne Murray [song], then the next minute she would have on Madonna, and go to sleep listening to Celine Dion," he recalled. 

Good luck, Dannielynn! So many fans are rooting for you!