As Netflix looks back at Anna Nicole Smith’s life, a friend of the late star recalls her romance with the late Hollywood star.
Missy Byrum, who first met Nicole at the Houston strip club where they both worked, claimed they got married before her addiction led to the end of their relationship.
Speak with PeopleByrum says they began secretly dating in 1992.
A year later, Smith proposed to her and they got married in a backyard.
“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. But I always knew it would never work out because she would never settle down with one person,” Byrum told People, which features the late Smith on the latest cover.
‘She wanted me to have a baby with her’: As Netflix looks back at Anna Nicole Smith’s life, a friend of the late star recalls her romance with the late Hollywood icon
Eventually, Byrum ended the relationship after she couldn’t handle Smith’s addiction. “She needed more love than any human could give her.”
Byrum also shared some unpleasant memories she had of the star.
“She made up a lot,” Byrum said.
Recalling their time together at the strip club, Byrum said, “We girls were all abused in some way and we shared about it. She didn’t have that in her past.’
However, Anna is said to have related Byrum’s experience of abuse to others as if it were her own experience. Byrum was floored when she heard what Anna was doing.
“Nicki adapted to get what she needed,” she said.
Long before she was given the name by Guess designer Paul Marciano, Byrum says she “began to manifest the character of Anna Nicole.”
“She learned from stripping that guys like to believe you’re stupid when you’re this beautiful. She used to say, “It takes a smart person to be really dumb.”
Byrum also claimed that the Guess model had numerous procedures to look like her.
Missy Bryum recalls her romance with Smith with People and in the new Netflix documentary about the model, Anna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me
‘She was in constant pain’: Byrum also claimed that the Guess model had numerous procedures to look like her
“She’s had all kinds of cosmetic procedures,” she said. “They cut her gums to make her teeth bigger. Her breasts had stretch marks from having Daniel, so she had some esthetician grind away all the skin around her areola. She was in constant pain.’
Nicole has also had four breast augmentations, according to People.
Byrum, who also struggled with substance abuse, told the site, “That’s where her addiction to painkillers started.
‘I’ve never seen anyone like that. She could take 15 Klonopins and 12 Valiums and drink on top of that.”
Embodying Anna: Long before she was given the name by Guess designer Paul Marciano, Missy says she “began to manifest the character of Anna Nicole”
Smith married 89-year-old oil magnate J. Howard Marshall II in 1994 after meeting him while performing at a strip club.
According to Smith’s uncle George Beall, Smith really liked the oil magnate.
“She really loved him,” he told People. “The way he cared for her and cared for her — she cared deeply about him. She didn’t want people to think she was after his money. [Her] Aunt Kay and I both said, “If you love him, to laugh at what people think!”
‘Mr. Marshall was a very intelligent man,” Byrum told People. “He knew she was a young woman and needed certain things. He allowed her to have her boy toys or whatever.”
Telling her story: The Netflix documentary, Anna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me, is out now
Anna Nicole died of an accidental drug overdose in February 2007 at just 39 years old, leaving behind her infant daughter, Dannielynn.
It came just months after her son Daniel died of an accidental drug overdose in 2006 at the age of 20.
In the wake of her son’s death, Smith spiraled further into a spiral of depression, mental illness and substance abuse, culminating in her passing away in a Hollywood, Florida hotel room with a cocktail of drugs in her system.
After Anne Nicole’s death, her partner Howard K. Stern fought for custody of her daughter Dannielynn, believing him to be the father, but a paternity suit later found that the child was fathered by part-time celebrity photographer Larry Birkhead.
The Netflix documentary Anna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me is out now.