A Look Back At Anna Nicole Smith, One Year Later
Today marks one year since Anna Nicole Smith died of an accidental overdose of prescription medicine. Anna was 39 years old at the time of her death.
A mere six months prior to Anna's death, the model-turned-reality star was blessed with a joyous occasion, the birth of her second child Dannielynn, only to face the worst moment any parent could ever face a mere three days later, the death of her son, 20-year-old Daniel.
Anna's never been easy to pigeonhole or analyze as a media figure. She's either engaged or disengaged. When Anna was engaged with the world, she was vivacious, stunningly beautiful and charismatic. When she was disengaged she seemed confused, unfocused and randomly distracted.
Even with this duality of characters within one person, anyone who was paying attention could tell Anna was deeply and fundamentally devastated by her son's death. In her inimitable way, she was expressing her grief by simply disengaging with reality, and what we witnessed was Anna slipping away. It really should not have been a shock that Anna died so young, and so soon after her son's death, she simply had given in and lost the will, her spirit died it seemed, and all that remained was the vessel. And yes Anna had spirit, something we sometimes forget as the media twists the public persona famous people put forth and the private selves they try and hide.
Someone who knew Anna well was author Ian Halperin. We had Ian on our Glosslip Radio show a couple weeks ago and while researching for that interview, I'd read somewhere he and Anna had had an intimate relationship while he was writing his book Hollywood Undercover. I *REALLY* wanted to dig into this aspect of his experiences, but I could tell he was guarded about his feelings and relationship with her, (unlike say every single other human being who ever spent even a minute with Anna).
Ian revealed exclusively to me, his feelings upon finding out Anna had died, and what he would like to people to remember about her posthumously, especially her beloved daughter Danniellynn.
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