The 20-year-old son of Anna Nicole Smith mysteriously died in the Bahamas just days after his famous Playboy Playmate mom gave birth to a girl, officials said yesterday.
Daniel Smith was found sitting upright in a chair in his mother’s room Sunday at the private Doctors Hospital in Nassau. Anna Nicole Smith, 38, gave birth to a 6-pound, 9-ounce girl there on Thursday.
Police would only confirm that the young man died at the hospital, but law-enforcement sources told the Nassau Guardian newspaper that traces of anti-depressants were found in his body. Investigators are considering the possibility that an overdose could have triggered a massive heart attack, the paper reported.
Daniel arrived in the Bahamas on Saturday and was in the hospital’s maternity ward on Sunday when he passed out, and his mom and doctors couldn’t revive him, according to the Guardian.
The model’s reps insisted the death had nothing to do with drugs or alcohol.
“We have yet to learn the cause of death but do not believe that drugs or alcohol were a factor,” said Anna Nicole’s lawyer and longtime pal Howard K. Stern. “Anna Nicole is absolutely devastated by the loss of her son. He was her pride and joy and an amazing human being.”
Daniel Smith was the first child of then-teen newlyweds Vickie Lynn Hogan (Anna Nicole Smith’s birth name) and Billy Smith. The lovebirds met in Mexia, Texas, and were married between 1985 and 1987.
Daniel was raised by his mother, and his heartbroken dad said he hopes to pay his last respects in person.
“Please let me attend my son’s funeral,” Billy Smith said in an interview with the Splash News Agency from his home in Mexia. “I’m sure this must be a really hard time for Anna, and we’re all praying for her.”
“We haven’t spoken in a long while, and we’ve had our differences in the past, but I would ask her to let me and my family attend the funeral so we can pay our last respects,” added Billy Smith, who was just 16 when he married his 17-year-old bride.
Anna Nicole traveled to the Bahamas to give birth last week, so she could dodge photographers, according to Robin Bonnema, a spokeswoman for Smith and Smith-endorsed TrimSpa diet products.
TrimSpa has been working furiously since Daniel Smith’s unexpected death to pull a major advertising campaign focusing on Anna Nicole and her new daughter.
Last night, the TrimSpa Web site featured only a black screen with a photo of Anna and Daniel and a short tribute message.
“We’re trying to pull back the [advertising] campaign. We’re trying to give her [Anna Nicole] the space to breathe,” Bonnema said
Anna Nicole Smith was Playboy’s 1993 Playmate of the Year, and she became a pop-culture icon a year later, when she married 89-year-old oil baron J. Marshall Howard. The wheelchair-bound executive met Smith when she was dancing at a Houston strip club.
Howard’s death 14 months later sparked a years-long court battle over his estate. The U.S. Supreme Court eventually ruled that Smith could continue to pursue Howard’s fortune.
Along the way, Smith seized her pop-culture fame and starred in “The Anna Nicole Show,” a reality-TV series that aired on E!
In courtroom appearances and scenes in “The Anna Nicole Show,” Daniel Smith came off as a shy, young man, who wore braces on his teeth and seemed to share few personality traits with his over-the-top, boisterous mom.
“I would say he was quiet and very, very polite,” Bonnema said. “But they just adored each other. It was very genuine.”
Billy Smith said he struggled to keep in contact with his son, who had been picking up occasional acting roles.
“I wrote to Anna and sent presents to Daniel over the years, but I never heard anything back. I just hope we can put past differences behind us so we can all grieve together for Daniel,” he said.
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