Anna Nicole Smith Once Spent $2 Million Of Her Husband’s Money In One Day

Get your tissues ready. Anna Nicole Smith: You Don't Know Me is a devastating watch. The Netflix documentary explores the life of the model and actress leading up to her drug overdose at 39. Prior to her death, Anna Nicole Smith was a household name for her modeling campaigns.

However, her fame also came from one of her marriages, which caused massive hysteria. Anna Nicole Smith married J. Howard Marshall, an 89-year-old oil tycoon, at age 26. Their relationship was notable for their massive age difference, as well as the lawsuits about Marshall's estate following his death.

While her marriage to the billionnaire was one of her most memorable relationships, Anna Nicole Smith was also married to someone else. Here's everything to know about her husbands—J. Howard Marshall and Billy Wayne Smith.

Her first husband was Billy Wayne Smith.

Anna Nicole's first marriage happened before any fame came to her. In fact, it was back when her name was Vickie Lynn Hogan. At 14, the model dropped out of high school and began working at Jim's Krispy Fried Chicken in Mexia, Texas, per The Daily Mail.

The actress worked as a waitress, and met Billy Wayne while he worked at the restaurant as a fry cook. He was a year younger than Anna Nicole, and also had dropped out of high school. The pair dated for a few months before getting married on April 4, 1985—Anna Nicole was 17, while Billy was 16.

The couple even had a child together, Daniel Wayne Smith, on January 22, 1986. However, they separated a year after he was born, and officially divorced in 1993, per The Daily Mail.

"He drove me crazy. I chased him and chased him the way young girls do until I finally got him and married him. By then, of course, I wasn't interested," Anna Nicole said of their breakup, per The Daily Mail.

Since the two separated, Billy Wayne has lived an extremely private life. He was only seen publicly at his son's memorial service in 2007, per The Daily Mail.

She met J. Howard Marshall at a strip club.

After divorcing Billy, Anna Nicole relocated to Houston, where she was born, according to Texas State Historical Association. In 1988, she met J. Howard Marshall while performing at a strip club called Gigi's, per PEOPLE. In 1991, Marshall returned to Gigi's and saw Anna Nicole again. He invited her out to lunch with him, and she agreed. The next day, he reportedly gave her $1000 during their date. She quit her job at Gigi's, and continued to see Marshall.

In June 1994, the couple got married in Houston. Anna Nicole reportedly left shortly after the ceremony, telling Marshall: "Bye, darling, I’m off to Greece," per PEOPLE. Although the pair was married until Marshall's death in August 1995, they rarely spent time together. She often stayed in Los Angeles, while he resided in Houston.

She reportedly spent millions of Marshall's money. In a deposition Marshall's son gave following his father's death, he alleged his father had given Anna Nicole around $100,000 a month in either cash or gifts, per Texas Monthly. She also once racked up a $2 million bill on Marshall's Platinum American Express in a single shopping trip in March 1993, per PEOPLE. She reportedly purchased lots of diamond jewelry.

Who is J. Howard Marshall?

J. Howard Marshall was born in Philadelphia on January 24, 1905. He is now mostly known for his relationship with Anna Nicole Smith, but he was an extremely successful businessman, and thus, a billionaire before ever being attached to the model.

He went to law school at Yale, and went on to be the assistant dean. He also taught business courses and wrote about oil law for the Yale Law Journal during his time at the university, per U.S. News and World Report.

Prior to his relationship with Anna Nicole, Marshall was married twice before. He first married Eleanor Pierce in 1931, and had two sons with her—James Howard Marshall III and E. Pierce Marshall. In 1961, the couple divorced, and Marshall married Bettye Bohannon the same year. He reportedly pursued Anna Nicole very shortly after his second wife died, per PEOPLE.

He regulated the oil industry.

Marshall worked for Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes on regulating the oil industry during the 1930s and World War II. He wrote the Connally Hot Oil Act of 1935, which was intended to protect against foreign and interstate "contraband oil," or oil produced without regulation, per Texas State Historical Association.

Marshall also worked as a lawyer for Chevron, and at Ashland Oil in Kentucky and Signal Oil in California, per U.S. News and World Report. In 1952, he co-founded Great Northern Oil Company with the Koch Brothers, per Reuters. He later founded his own oil company, Marshall Petroleum, in 1984, per PEOPLE.

He was reportedly worth $2 billion.

According to Celebrity Net Worth, J. Howard Marshall was worth $2 billion at the time of his death. However, Marshall's son, E. Pierce Marshall, ensured that Anna Nicole Smith would not get any of his father's estate.

Anna Nicole later filed for bankruptcy, and the California federal court agreed that Pierce had tried to cheat her out of money. The court awarded her $474 million, but was later appealed to the U.S. District Court in California and reduced to $88 million. In 2010, three years after Anna Nicole's death, the court ruled that she was not entitled to any of his estate.

You can learn more about Anna Nicole Smith's life in Anna Nicole Smith: You Don't Know Me, now streaming on Netflix.

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