When you live life in the public eye, fans believe they are entitled to know everything about you. It is impressive to see a famous person keep some things back for just themselves and play the fair game to their advantage. Anna Nicole Smith was one of those people.
A new Netflix documentary, Anna Nicole Smith: You Don't Know Me — which dropped May 16, 2023 — explores the many layers of this fascinating woman. Fans might not know Anna had a secret marriage to a woman. She played the part of “Anna” and often lied for monetary gain.
The director of the film, Ursula Macfarlane, opened up to People magazine about the project.
"She was this icon of female perfection," Ursula said. "Throughout her life, she was just trying to be what she thought other people wanted her to be. I don't know if Anna Nicole truly knew who she herself was."
Anna first rose to fame after gracing the cover of Playboy magazine in 1992. This would lead to many other modeling contracts and film roles. She married 89-year-old billionaire J. Howard Marshall in 1994, cementing her Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Marilyn Monroe image. He died 14 months later, and his son made sure she never received a penny of his money from then on.
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Most do not know Anna found love before that with her friend Missy Byrum. Missy and Anna first met in the '90s, working as strippers in the same club. At the time, Anna went by Nicki, and she stole other women’s stories of abuse to benefit her persona.
"Nicki adapted to get what she needed," Missy recalled. "She started to manifest the character of Anna Nicole" years before Guess designer Paul Marciano gave her the name. "She learned from stripping that guys like to believe you're stupid if you're that pretty. She always said, 'It takes a smart person to be really dumb.'"
Missy and Anna got secretly married in an an unofficial ceremony in 1993 after Anna divorced her first husband, Billy Wayne Smith. "She gave me a set of rings and we got married in the backyard by the pool with champagne,” Missy recalled. “She wanted me to have a baby with her. But I always knew it wasn't ever going to work out because she was never, ever going to settle down with one person."
Missy walked away from the marriage because of Anna’s drug addiction and lifestyle. It all got to be just too much.
"She needed more love than any one human being could give her," she recalled.
Even Virgie Mae Hogan, Anna’s mother, wondered why her daughter lied so often, so she asked her point blank.
"I make more money telling sad stories than I make telling good stories," Virgie recounted her daughter saying. "Any time my name is in the news, I am making money. If it's bad, something really bad, I make 50 times the amount I make if it's good."
One of the producers of the film, Alexandra Lacey, also blames society.
"We idealize these types of celebrities, usually women, oftentimes blonde," she said. "Then they show us flaws, vulnerabilities, and in her case, a lot of physical and psychological pain. Then, suddenly, we don't wanna know them anymore."
Anna's uncle, George Beall, agrees and also blames Hollywood. "Hollywood put her in the fast lane. I think it ruined her more than anything,” he mused.
Anna was a mother of two children. Her son, Daniel Wayne Smith, whom she shared with Billy Wayne Smith, died at 20 years old from an accidental overdose, just like his mother. Her daughter, Dannielynn Birkhead, is now 16 years old. She was the center of a contentious paternity case after Anna’s death, which eventually named Larry Birkhead as her father.
