What was the age difference between Anna Nicole Smith and J Howard Marshall?

ANNA NICOLE SMITH AND J. HOWARD MARSHALL II. IMAGE VIA PINTEREST.

In collaboration with @velvetcoke, Obvious History is a weekly series which unearths forgotten moments in pop culture’s past, where the famous and the fascinating collided.

“The bride wore cleavage,” begins an August 1994 article in People magazine about Anna Nicole Smith’s wedding to wheelchair bound oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, 89 at the time of their marriage. It was a long-awaited comeuppance for a woman who used to be ashamed of her double A bra before trading up for a 36DD rack of silicone. She was marrying into a billion-dollar fortune that, sadly, would never be hers.

Smith and Marshall met at Gigi’s—the strip club Smith landed at after failing to cut it at Houston’s more posh venues with tighter restrictions for their dancers, like Baby O’s or Rick’s. “We considered disciplining her for her plumpness,” Robert Waters, the owner of Rick’s, told Texas Monthly in 1994.

On an October afternoon in 1991, Marshall’s driver wheeled him into Gigi’s, where he sat agog at the busty dancer slowly revealing more and more to the schmaltzy twinkle of Chris de Burgh’s “The Lady in Red.” It was Anna Nicole Smith on the day shift. After her performance, the then 26-year-old gave him a lap dance. He was enamored, if physically unmoved. She was charmed, and after talking for a while he invited her to lunch the following day.

At lunch, hotel room service, Smith complained that she had to return to work for her usual shift. Marshall handed her an envelope with ten Benjamin Franklins, saying, “Don’t go to work, my Lady Love. You don’t have to ever go back to work.”

Over the ensuing days, months, and years, the old man would keep her sweet with million-dollar purchases, including jewelry and a Rolls Royce. They kept it down to earth too, returning to her humble beginnings: he loved eating at Red Lobster. It was his “favorite restaurant,” according to NY Mag. She used to work there, serving Cheddar Bay Biscuits to middle class seafood patrons for minimum wage.

Some years later, and after several attempts, Smith agreed to marry Marshall. They wed on June 27, 1994, both in white, in Houston’s White Dove Wedding Chapel. After they sealed it with a kiss, Smith told her new husband she had to jet out of town for a photo shoot. According to NY Mag, Marshall “sat crying in his wheelchair.” He wouldn’t be crying for long. The marriage lasted 14 months before Marshall passed away. Though she battled Marshall’s son all the way to Supreme Court for control of his estate, she wasn’t included in the will and never gained control of his massive fortune.

Over 20 years later, both are gone and Gigi’s—that glorious stucco compound where an age-defying love was fated—was demolished in 2012.

Oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II married model and actress Anna Nicole Smith in 1994. What made headlines about their relationship was their 60+ age gap.

Anna Nicole Smith and J. Howard Marshall’s relationship was one of the most unusual in the States in the 90s, primarily because of its context and outcome. Born in November 1967, Anna was the girl everyone wanted to date and all the girls were jealous of.

She met her first husband, Billy Smith, when she was only 16 years old. They tied the knot, welcomed a kid, and parted ways – all before she turned 19 years old.

Billy Smith and Anna Nicole Smith in the 80s | Photo: YouTube/ABC News

ANNA NICOLE SMITH’S LIFE

In 1986, Anna dropped out of high school and moved to Houston, where she worked waiting tables at a restaurant. A year later, she began working as a dancer at a men’s club.

After having “at least two operations,” she tried to land jobs at other men’s clubs. Eventually, Rick’s, the most famous club in Houston, hired her. However, she didn’t make it to the night shift, which paid better.

In 1988, a “lonely” man in his 80s was sitting in the audience. She approached him, started talking, and became good friends. That man was her future husband, J. Howard Marshall.

J. Howard Marshall in the 90s | Photo: YouTube/ABC News

INTRODUCING J. HOWARD MARSHALL

The late businessman was a distant relative of Supreme Court chief justice John Marshall. His granddad had a steel company and made a fortune by selling it for about $18 million in 1902.

J. Howard went to the Yale School of Law and made it to the top of the class. At 28 years old, the Secretary of the Interior, Harold Ickes, asked him to investigate the “hot oil” wars.

J. Howard Marshall | Photo: YouTube/ABC News

He carried out his job successfully and took important positions in different oil companies. He also invested in some of them, including Koch Industries, which made him rich.

By the time he met Anna Nicole Smith, he was already one of the wealthiest men in the States. He had also been married twice. His first wife was Eleanor Pierce, his college sweetheart.

J. Howard Marshall and Anna Nicole Smith in the 90s | Photo: YouTube/ABC News

Although she never understood his passion for the oil business, they had two sons. After Eleanor, J. Howard married Bettye Bohannon. She was into the oil business, which J. Howard loved, but she died from Alzheimer’s disease in 1991.

[Anna] claimed J. Howard promised she would get half of everything once they tied the knot.

Anna Nicole Smith circa 1990 | Photo: Getty Images

MARRYING ANNA NICOLE SMITH

In 1994, one year after Anna Nicole Smith was named Playboy’s Playmate of the Year, she married J. Howard. At the time, he was 89 years old and bound to a wheelchair, while Anna was 26.

People immediately claimed she married him for his fortune, claims that she denied. They were together for only one year as he died of pneumonia in August 1995.

From that point on, his fortune, estimated at over $500 million, was in dispute. Anna and the late oil tycoon’s youngest son, E. Pierce Marshall, even took things to court.

Anna Nicole Smith on March 3, 2005 in Sydney, Australia | Photo: Getty Images

FIGHTING OVER THE ESTATE

In 1995, she filed for bankruptcy, and Pierce sued her for defamation for claiming he’d used forgery and fraud to gain control of J. Howard Marshall’s estate.

Anna’s bankruptcy judge dismissed Pierce’s case and awarded her $475 million after accusing him of interfering in her inheritance.

In 2001, Anna lost another court battle over her late husband’s estate. She claimed J. Howard promised she would get half of everything once they tied the knot, but the jury said Pierce was the sole heir.

Anna Nicole Smith on May 1, 2004 in Louisville, Kentucky | Photo: Getty Images

J. Howard’s eldest son, J. Howard Marshall III, was also involved in a legal battle as he wanted a part of the late businessman’s estate. However, the jury found the oil tycoon had no agreement with him about the money.

In June 2006, E. Pierce Marshal died after an aggressive infection. Dannielynn Birkhead, Anna Nicole Smith’s daughter, took things to court to try to make some money from his estate but failed.

J. Howard Marshall’s third spouse, Anna Nicole Smith, died in 2007 of an accidental drug overdose. Now, Pierce’s wife and sons are managing his Koch Industries shares, and the Marshall family is still one of the wealthiest in America.

How old was J. Howard Marshall when he met Anna Nicole?

How old was Marshall when he married Anna Nicole Smith?

How old was Anna Nicole Smith?