Anna Nicole Welcomes Daughter, Loses Son

Former E! reality star's adult son found dead in a Nassau hospital room Sunday, three days after Smith gave birth to a baby girl

By Sarah Hall Sep 11, 2006 3:40 PMTags

What should be a time of celebration for Anna Nicole Smith has turned into a time of mourning.

The former Playboy Playmate's 20-year-old son died in a Nassau hospital Sunday, three days after Smith gave birth to a healthy baby girl in the Bahamas.

Daniel Smith had traveled to the Caribbean nation to be with his mother, according to a statement posted on her official Website.

He arrived in Bahamas on Saturday immediately went to visit his mother and new 6-pound, 9-ounce baby sister in the maternity ward of the private Doctors Hospital, local officials confirmed. He apparently passed out in a chair and, after failing to rouse him, Anna Nicole Smith alerted hospital staffers.

"We have yet to learn the cause of death but do not believe that drugs or alcohol were a factor," Smith's lawyer, Howard K. Stern, said in a statement. "Anna Nicole is absolutely devastated by the loss of her son. He was her pride and joy and an amazing human being."

According to a report in Nassau Guardian, Daniel Smith suffered a massive heart attack. But police and hospital officials refused to confirm the report, saying the cause of death remains under investigation and an autopsy is being performed.

As a teenager, Daniel Smith made frequent appearances on his mother's eponymous E! Entertainment reality show. (E! Online and E! Entertainment are divisions of E! Networks.) He also had small roles in the films Skyscraper and To the Limit.

Daniel was the product of Anna Nicole's marriage to Billy Smith, whom she married in 1985, when she was 16 and he was 17. The couple divorced in 1987.

In 1993, Anna Nicole Smith was named Playboy's Playmate of the Year. One year later, she wed 89-year-old oil tycoon J. Marshall Howard, who passed away after 14 months of marriage.

Since Howard's death, Smith has been locked in a long-running legal battle over his estate. Her primary foe and former stepson, E. Pierce Marshall, died in June, just weeks after Smith won a Supreme Court decision giving her another chance to collect her late husband's millions.

Smith, 38, announced her pregnancy in June. She has not revealed who fathered her daughter.