Six Months After Anna Nicole’s Death, Stern Says Bahamas Is Home:
By Quincy Parker -
Nassau, Bahamas:
If her 20-year-old son Daniel Wayne Smith were alive, Howard K. Stern says there is no doubt that the late Anna Nicole Smith would be alive today.
Mr. Stern, who was Ms. Smith’s lawyer, and later her lover, is staying in the million-dollar Eastern Road mansion the two shared before the model/actress died in February, and says he will not leave Ms. Smith and her son Daniel here alone.
Daniel Smith died in September 2006, just three days after his little sister Dannielynn was born to Ms. Smith at Doctors Hospital. He was buried at Lakeview Memorial Cemetery.
Speaking exclusively with the Journal from the waterfront mansion, known as ‘Horizons,’ Mr. Stern ruminated on what effect Daniel’s death had on Ms. Smith.
"That changed life forever," Mr. Stern said.
"Daniel was Anna Nicole’s reason for living. Daniel was more than her son. She had Daniel when she was very young and he was literally her whole life. She used to say that he was her whole reason for living, and he was the difference between her and Marilyn Munroe," he said.
"So when Daniel passed away, it changed everything."
Mr. Stern said it would be an understatement to say that Daniel was "a huge part of my life or Anna Nicole’s life."
"She overcame everything in her life. She’s had a lot of different battles in the past, but I truly believe that losing her son was the one thing that she couldn’t overcome. She had nightmares literally all the time," he recalled.
"There’s no question in my mind that if Daniel was alive Anna Nicole would be alive today."
After a protracted, often bitter court battle, Ms. Smith’s remains were shipped from Florida, where she died suddenly of complications due to drug interaction, to Nassau, and she too was buried at Lakeview.
Mr. Stern also explained why he chose to stay in The Bahamas, where he said he’d eventually apply for permanent residency.
"When she passed, I obviously had a fight to bring her back here to her son, which is where she wanted to be buried," he said. "I’m not going to leave them here alone, and also the people have opened up their arms to me since she passed away.
"I think the people of The Bahamas are wonderful, with a couple of notable exceptions, but I think there are ulterior motives to that. I want to stay here, and right now I’m not a (permanent) resident so I go back and forth, but eventually, if the people of The Bahamas would accept me, I do want to stay here permanently."
He reiterated that Ms. Smith had come to The Bahamas to escape the media circus. That goal was achieved, he said, until word of Ms. Smith’s pregnancy leaked out.
"We’d go to Poop Deck [Restaurant] maybe once a week to eat. Anna loved it here. She absolutely loved it here," he said. "Anna loved the people of The Bahamas and this was going to be her home. No doubt about it, she considered The Bahamas her home."
Mr. Stern said that when Daniel died, "a lot of people really came to Anna’s aid."
He also defended the Gibson clan, which he asserted was "very good" to him and Ms. Smith, shielding them from the press, and taking them out on King Eric Gibson’s boat when it was the only escape.
"I feel bad, and I know Anna would feel horrible about the way that the media – even the local media to some extent – treated Shane Gibson after Anna passed, and even before she passed," Mr. Stern said.
"I know firsthand that the accusations against him are not true. He essentially was punished for being a good Samaritan."
