Reality TV star and former model Anna Nicole Smith was pronounced
dead Thursday after being taken to a Florida hospital, a law enforcement source
told CNN. Smith, 39, collapsed at a south Florida hotel, according to news reports.
"I can confirm that she is deceased. It’s as shocking to me as to you guys,"
Smith’s attorney, Ronald Rale, told Reuters. "I don’t know anything further.
[Her lawyer and husband] Howard [K. Stern], obviously, is speechless and grieving."

Smith’s nurse called Seminole Hard Rock Hotel workers at 1:38 p.m. and security
went to the room, hotel officials told Reuters. Fire rescue workers arrived
within minutes, and Smith was taken to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood
at 2:10 p.m.

Smith was involved in a paternity suit regarding the parentage of her daughter,
Danielynn, as well as other disputes, including some regarding a house she stayed
at in the Bahamas around the time she gave birth. Earlier this week, Smith was
included in a class-action lawsuit against a company, TrimSpa, for which she
had worked as a spokesperson. TrimSpa makes a product it claims leads to substantial
weight loss. The lawsuit alleges the marketing of the product, TrimSpa X32,
was false or misleading.

Smith’s son, Daniel Wayne Smith, died at age 20 just days after the birth of
Smith’s daughter. Pathologist Cyril Wecht said a lethal dose of methadone and
antidepressants caused cardiac dysrhythmia, leading to his death.

In June 1994, the then-26-year-old Smith married Texas oil baron J. Howard
Marshall II, 89, who had an estate valued at $1.6 billion. He died the following
year, and Smith waged a 12-year feud with Marshall’s son, Pierce Marshall, over
the inheritance. She initially won a $474 million judgment, but that was scrapped
when a Texas state court ruled that Pierce Marshall was the sole heir. In May
2006, however, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Smith could pursue her fight
in federal court. Pierce Marshall, 67, died in June.