2008 Woodie Awards
Howard K. Stern's sister says he was with former Playmate only hours before she died
Linda Deutsch, Associated Press
Issue date: 2/14/07 Section: Entertainment
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Anna Nicole Smith's partner, Howard K. Stern, was not with the former Playboy playmate when she died, but he knew she was very sick, his sister says.
Stern had told his sister that Smith was running a fever of 105 degrees shortly before her death on Thursday, and that a nurse was "icing her down" earlier that day at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Fla.
"When he left her, she was sleeping," Bonnie Stern said.
He had been gone only about two hours when news reached him that Smith was dead, she said. A private nurse had called 911 after finding the former model unresponsive.
Bonnie Stern, who recently traveled from her Beverly Hills home to the Bahamas to comfort her brother, said that he had tried to get Smith to visit a doctor but Smith had refused because she was afraid that it would draw publicity.
"They had plans to get a yacht and to buy an engagement ring. They were going to get married Feb. 27. It was going to be a real marriage," she said.
Asked what she thought caused Smith's death, Bonnie Stern said: "Her immunity was so low. She was so depressed. She kept getting sick and her body just probably broke down."
Smith had never recovered from the loss of her 20-year-old son, Daniel, who died in the Bahamas in September while visiting his mother and newborn half-sister at a hospital, friends said. She had also spent a decade battling in court over the estate of her late husband, the 90-year-old Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II.
Alex Goen, the founder and CEO of TrimSpa, knew Smith well from working with her as a company spokesmodel and said she suffered from social anxiety, as well, even after years in the celebrity spotlight.
Be the first to comment on this story