The world was obsessed with Anna Nicole Smith,
and that fascination carried over to her constant
companion, lawyer Howard K. Stern.
Sadly, Smith died of an accidental overdose
in February 2007, but Stern's time in the
spotlight was far from over.
So whatever happened to Anna Nicole Smith's
lawyer and reality TV co-star?
Business beginnings
Howard K. Stern and Anna Nicole Smith's relationship
started out as strictly business.
His law firm handled Smith's modeling and
show business contracts in the mid-1990s.
In 1995, Stern's representation of Smith's
affairs extended to the aforementioned fight
for a piece of her late husband billionaire
J. Howard Marshall II's estate.
The problem was Smith wasn't included in her
husband's will, triggering a decades-long
legal battle with his surviving family members.
Stern would continue to be involved in related
litigation long after Smith's death.
“I’m gonna make a name for myself, so
nobody can call me a gold digger”
That wasn’t the only involvement Stern had
with Smith.
The former Guess model and actress dipped
her toe into reality TV, and Stern became
a familiar onscreen presence.
By the time The Anna Nicole Show premiered
in 2002, the law firm Stern co-founded had
been dissolved, and he had moved on to a new
venture a talent agency he founded called
Hot Smoochie Lips, Inc. Smith was his only
client.
A wedding and a funeral
In September 2006, Stern accompanied Anna
Nicole Smith and her newborn daughter, Dannielynn,
to the Bahamas, where they were married in
a commitment ceremony.
According to People, the two tied the knot
aboard a boat off the coast of Paradise Island.
Two days before the ceremony, Stern appeared
on Larry King Live, where he claimed he was
Dannielyn's biological father.
“So you are the father?”
“Yes, sir.”
The timing of both events raised the eyebrows
of Smith's fans, who were already suspicious
of Stern's motivations.
Unfortunately, just a few months after their
quick wedding, Smith was found unresponsive
in her hotel room in the Bahamas and pronounced
dead at the hospital.
Her death triggered an intense, public paternity
battle over her 5-month-old daughter between
Stern and Smith’s ex-boyfriend, Larry Birkhead.
Daddy issues
Though Stern was listed as the father on Dannielynn's
birth certificate, that never stopped Larry
Birkhead from firmly believing he was the
girl's father.
His belief was confirmed when a court-ordered
DNA test proved that Birkhead is Dannielynn's
biological father.
Stern quickly did the right thing, allowing
Birkhead immediate access to Dannielynn after
the release of the DNA results, even though
custody issues were still pending.
At a press conference outside of the hearing,
Stern told reporters,
"We're gonna do what we can to make sure that
the best interests of Dannielynn are carried
out."
Birkhead was eventually awarded full custody.
Perplexing prescriptions
As if losing his paternity claim while still
grieving Anna Nicole Smith's death wasn't
enough, Stern then faced serious accusations
around the star’s prescription medication.
In 2009, Fox News reported that Stern, along
with two doctors, were charged with several
felony counts of conspiracy and other charges
related to fraudulent prescriptions Stern
faced six charges, and each doctor faced seven.
The trio allegedly provided Smith with thousands
of prescriptions during the years leading
up to her death, according to prosecutors.
Of the 11 prescription drugs found in the
hotel room where Smith spent her last night,
most of them were written to Stern and none
were actually prescribed to Smith.
Stern's legal battle over the charges brought
against him relating to Anna Nicole Smith's
prescriptions continued for years.
"These last four years--there’s no way to
put into words how difficult they’ve been."
A matter of privacy
In 2010, Stern was convicted of two felony
charges of conspiring to use fake names and
false pretenses to score prescriptions.
Stern claimed that he arranged for the prescriptions
to be in his name to quote, “protect Anna
Nicole's privacy."
One year later, a judge vacated those convictions,
citing the quote "basic unfairness in the
charging of the case."
However, the year after that, an appellate
court reversed that decision, once again causing
Stern to face the possibility of jail time.
Things were finally resolved in 2015, when
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert J.
Perry, the same judge who vacated his original
convictions, dismissed them again.
The judge also blamed the charges and the
lengthy court process on the notion that Stern
was a public figure being used as an example.
"I was vindicated.
Anna was vindicated.
Who she was a person was vindicated."
His continued battle for Smith
Stern was also part of the continued legal
battle for the money allegedly promised to
Anna Nicole Smith when her ex-husband, J.
Howard Marshall II, died.
Throughout this 20-year legal battle, Smith
was continually denied the money that she
felt was rightfully hers, but Stern was still
fighting on her behalf in 2015, according
to Forbes.
Another Forbes analysis broke down Stern's
involvement with the complicated probate battle
that eventually made its way to the Supreme
Court.
Essentially, Smith joined Marshall's disinherited
son in a lawsuit attempting to claim a piece
of the billion-dollar estate that was left
entirely to Marshall's other son, Pierce.
A Texas court ruled against them.
Meanwhile, Smith filed a bankruptcy claim
in California, alleging, quote, “that Pierce
had interfered with her potential inheritance.”
This resulted in an infamous $474 million
judgement in her favor, which was thrown out
by an appeals court who stated that the California
suit was invalid since it had been previously
decided in a Texas state court.
That's where the Supreme Court got involved
— twice.
The SCOTUS agreed to hear two cases related
to Smith’s claims, though they never awarded
a penny to Smith.
