Anna Nicole Smith's 'secret' girlfriend has spoken out about their relationship in a brand new documentary about the late model’s life, claiming they got 'married in the backyard'.
Anna Nicole Smith – whose real name was Vickie Lynn Hogan – became a global superstar after modelling for the likes of Guess and Playboy, along with a high profile marriage to 89-year-old billionaire J. Howard Marshall.
However, her life was cut short in 2007, when she died at the age of 37 thanks to combined drug intoxication.
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Her 'life, death and secrets’ are now being explored in a new Netflix documentary, Anna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me, which was released today (Tuesday 16 May).
A synopsis says: “From director Ursula Macfarlane (Untouchable) and producer Alexandra Lacey comes an unflinching and humanizing examination of the life, death, and secrets of Vickie Lynn Hogan - better known as model and actress Anna Nicole Smith.
“From her first appearance in Playboy in 1992, Anna Nicole’s dizzying ascent was the very essence of the American dream, brought to a tragic halt with her untimely passing in 2007.
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“With access to never-before-seen footage, home movies, and interviews with key figures who have not spoken out until now, this film reveals new insights into the story of the quintessential blonde bombshell hardly anyone really knew.”
In the feature-length documentary, we meet Missy Byrum, who became Smith’s close friend after meeting at a strip club in Houston where they both worked.
She says they eventually entered into a relationship in the early 90s, saying in the film: “I was really in love with her.
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“I was her first female lover, I guess. She had an insatiable appetite for sex, just like everything else. She enjoyed having sex.
“She got a lot of practice, she was good at what she did. She was a good lover.”
Byrum explains how she found it difficult to be with men as she didn’t ‘trust’ them, but found it ‘very easy to be intimate’ with Smith.
“That kept me fulfilled for a very long time,” she adds. “I loved her.”
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But it turns out Byrum wasn’t just Smith’s lover, as she’s now also claimed they got married in an intimate ceremony at home.
Speaking to People ahead of the documentary’s release, she said Smith proposed to her in 1993.
“She gave me a set of rings and we got married in the backyard by the pool with champagne … She wanted me to have a baby with her,” Byrum said.
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“But I always knew it wasn’t ever going to work out because she was never, ever going to settle down with one person.”
Byrum said she eventually walked away from the relationship as Smith’s addiction became too much to handle.
“She needed more love than any one human being could give her,” she added.
Watch Anna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me on Netflix now.
Topics: Celebrity, Film and TV, Documentaries, Netflix
Jess Hardiman