On June 27, 1994, 26-year-old model and actress Anna Nicole Smith married 89-year-old billionaire oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II at the White Dove Wedding Chapel in Houston, Texas. The ceremony became one of the most heavily scrutinized and iconic media spectacles of the 1990s due to their 63-year age difference and Marshall’s vast fortune.
The wedding took place in an intimate setting with only eleven guests in attendance. Both the bride and groom dressed in all white. Smith wore a traditional cleaving white lace gown and veil while showcasing a 22-carat diamond ring. The elderly groom, who was in frail health, was wheeled up the aisle in a wheelchair to the song “Tonight I Celebrate My Love For You.” The couple sealed their vows with a kiss, and white doves were released inside the chapel.
The couple originally met three years prior in 1991 at a Houston strip club where Smith was working as a dancer before she found mainstream fame as a Playboy Playmate and Guess fashion model. Marshall was captivated by her and proposed multiple times while showering her with millions of dollars in lavish gifts, including homes, luxury cars, and diamond jewelry.
The union immediately sparked widespread public debate. Critics and tabloids widely labeled Smith a “gold-digger” targeting Marshall’s estimated $1.6 billion estate. Conversely, Smith always maintained that she genuinely loved Marshall, noting that he accepted her and brought stability to her and her young son.
Immediately following the ceremony, Smith famously left her new husband at the chapel to jet off for a scheduled photo shoot. The marriage was short-lived, lasting only 14 months before Marshall passed away from pneumonia at age 90 in August 1995.
Because Marshall excluded Smith from his official final will, his death sparked a grueling, multi-decade legal battle over the inheritance between Smith and Marshall’s son, E. Pierce Marshall. The case famously went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court twice. Ultimately, the legal system ground down both sides, and Smith passed away in 2007 without ever receiving any part of the billionaire's fortune.
Sad and grotesque.
ReplyDeleteShows how people will do anything when lots of money is involved.
ReplyDeleteLOL. What a farce!
ReplyDeleteJHM was a great lawyer, astute businessman and trader, and a trusted member of our board. He loved to visit our trading floor in Houston and loved to hobnob with our traders. Our traders frequented Houston's strip clubs. And so inevitably JHM wound up with our traders at Rick's where ANS was very popular. All this mess tied up a very important piece of stock and brought attention where it certainly wasn't needed. All very much a shame as JHM was a great, down-to-earth, very smart man who deserved better. Hope he got out of his wheelchair and left with a smile on his face....
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