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Anna Nicole Smith's Estate Loses Final Bid for Millions

The estate of Anna Nicole Smith has failed in its final bid to obtain her late husband's money, seven years after the death of the Playboy model.
Image: Anna Nicole Smith
Anna Nicole Smith, leaves the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 28, 2006. Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP, file

The estate of Anna Nicole Smith has failed in its final bid to obtain her late husband's money, seven years after the death of the Playboy model and reality TV star. A federal judge in Orange County on Monday rejected the effort to obtain about $44 million from the estate of Texas billionaire J. Howard Marshall, whom Smith married in 1994 when he was 89 and she was 26. The oil tycoon died the next year. His will left his $1.6 billion estate to his son and nothing to Smith.

Smith, under her real name of Vickie Lynn Marshall, challenged the will, claiming that her husband promised to leave her more than $300 million above the cash and gifts showered on her during their 14-month marriage. A Houston jury said Marshall was mentally fit and under no undue pressure when he wrote the will.

Over the course of nearly 20 years, the Texas bankruptcy court and local and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, all rejected Smith's various attempts to overturn Marshall's will and trust and to obtain money from his estate. The efforts continued even after Smith died of an accidental drug overdose in February 2007.

IN-DEPTH

- The Associated Press