The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper The Spokesman-Review
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
Current Temperature
36°F
Current Conditions
Clear sky
View complete weather report
Subscribe now

Smith’s will adds to confusion

Virgie Arthur, Anna Nicole Smith's mother, talks to her husband, James, as they wait for the hearing to begin at the Broward County Circuit Court in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Friday. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Matt Sedensky Associated Press
Virgie Arthur, Anna Nicole Smith's mother, talks to her husband, James, as they wait for the hearing to begin at the Broward County Circuit Court in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Friday. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The question of who will inherit Anna Nicole Smith’s estate was thrown into further confusion Friday with the release of a 2001 will in which the former Playboy centerfold said her fortune should be held in trust for her son – who died last year.

The 19-page will did not say how much Smith was worth, so it is still a mystery how much money those battling over her and her baby daughter could get.

The document said Smith’s lawyer and boyfriend, Howard K. Stern, should be her executor and hold her estate in trust for son Daniel Smith. But her son died last September at age 20 of drug-related causes, days after the birth of the pinup’s daughter, Dannielynn.

And the will explicitly leaves out anything for anyone other than the son.

“I have intentionally omitted to provide for my spouse and other heirs, including future spouses and children and other descendants now living and those hereafter born or adopted,” Smith said in the will, which was signed under her legal name, Vickie Lynn Marshall.

Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin ordered the release of the will in the latest round in the tangled legal dispute that broke out after Smith died at a Florida hotel Feb. 8 at age 39. The cause of death is under investigation.

Stephen Tunstall, a lawyer for Smith’s estranged mother, Virgie Arthur, had questioned the veracity of the will before its release, calling it a “phantom will” because it was not filed in court. He did not answer questions about the will as he left court Friday.

Chris Boyett, a trust and estate lawyer not connected to the Smith case, said that since Smith’s son is dead, the court will probably treat her estate as if she had died without a will, meaning her estate would by law go to her baby daughter.

The will was released hours after the judge – who is trying to broker a three-way dispute over the body – gave the OK to embalm Smith’s remains.

Stern and Arthur are fighting over where Smith should be buried and who will get custody of the baby. Stern, who is listed as the baby’s father on the birth certificate, says Smith wanted to be buried next to her son in the Bahamas. Arthur wants her buried in Smith’s home state of Texas.

A third figure in the dispute, photographer Larry Birkhead, claims to have fathered Dannielynn and won permission to take DNA from Smith’s body in hopes of proving it. It was Birkhead’s DNA request that had held up the embalming.