"In search of solitude, they set out on a clandestine sail to recapture simple pleasures--fresh salt air on the face, a sunrise on the ocean, and wind in their hair."
And so began the nonwedding story of Anna Nicole Smith and Howard K. Stern.
In a 250-word statement, "Finding Solace & Hope," it was announced that the former E! reality star and her attorney participated in a commitment ceremony Thursday morning, aboard a boat in Nassau, Bahamas.
The release, issued by TrimSpa, the dietary supplement endorsed by Smith, came in the wake of reports claiming Smith and Stern had wed.
"Although the ceremony was officiated, it was not a wedding, and no marriage certificate was issued," the statement said.
The event, described as impromptu, came two days after Stern announced he was the father of Smith's newborn daughter, Dannielynn Hope, and 18 days after Smith's adult son, Daniel Smith, died.
Per TrimSpa, media scrutiny drove Smith and Stern to take to the high seas for an early-morning excursion with friends and family.
"And then a good thing happened," the company said. "During the sail, Anna Nicole Smith and Howard K. Stern made a commitment before God to be there for one another, to be each other's strength during this difficult time."
Smith's camp said the event--"intended to be totally private between two adults deeply in love with each other and needing simple reassurances that they could count on one another through life's ups and downs"--was later spoiled by prying reporters in speedboats, helicopters and scuba-diving equipment.
According to a Star magazine account of the "wedding" party, celebrants swam while Smith modeled "a pink bikini."
The commitment ceremony is apparently the first for Smith, 38. Previously, she was legally wed to Billy Wayne Smith, from 1985 to '87, and billionaire J. Howard Marshall, from 1994 to '95. The Billy Wayne Smith union ended in divorce and produced her son, Daniel. The Marshall union ended in his death, at age 90, and produced her much-litigated, multimillion-dollar bequest.
In the years between her divorce from Billy Wayne Smith and her marriage to Marshall, the former Vickie Lynn Hogan graduated from strip clubs to Playboy Playmate status.
Stern is Smith's longtime attorney, and as the evidence would suggest, something more. It is believed he was born in 1968, making him about a year younger than his number-one client. It is not known if he has had any previous marriages or commitment ceremonies on his ledger.
Smith and Stern appeared together on her 2002-04 self-titled E! reality show.
In addition to his professional association with Smith, Stern has been portrayed as a father figure to Smith's son. Daniel Smith died Sept. 10 in the Bahamas as he was visiting his mother and half-sister, born only three days earlier.
The sudden death, in the same hospital room where Anna Nicole Smith was recuperating, has produced two autopsies, but still no official cause of death. On Wednesday, the private pathologist hired by Anna Nicole Smith declared that Daniel Smith accidentally died from a lethal combination of methadone and two antidepressants.
Controversy also has dogged Smith's newborn child, with an ex-boyfriend, Larry Birkhead, proclaiming himself the father of Dannielynn Hope.
It's enough to send anyone out on a clandestine sail to recapture simple pleasures.