Ex-Manager: Anna Nicole Was An Addict
In an interview with The Saturday Early Show co-anchor Tracy Smith, Anna Nicole Smith's former manager characterized her as a troubled child-woman who was addicted to prescription drugs and was greatly changed by fame and fortune.
He also says he believes the father of her child is Larry Birkhead because of the physical resemblance he sees between photographs of Birkhead and infant Dannielynn. (For now, Smith's companion, Howard K. Stern, has custody of the child because his name is on her birth certificate.)
Eric Redding said Smith was "a very confused young lady from the beginning. Very child-like, almost like a kid, just like her son, Daniel. They did everything together. They were like brother and sister, to be honest, and very troubled for the last 16 years that I have known her."
Smith's 20-year-old son, Daniel, died in September of what was believed to be an accidental drug overdose, around the time Smith gave birth to her daughter.
Redding met Smith in 1991, when he photographed her for Playboy magazine. He then became her manager for two years while she lived in Texas. They parted amicably when she moved to California, where she hired new management. Redding says they remained friends until the last two years of her life, when, he says, Smith withdrew from her friends in general.
Redding says he was "shocked, but not surprised" at the news of her death on Thursday.
"She has had a history, unfortunately, of... abusing the prescription medications," he added, telling Tracy Smith, "I think she overdosed on prescription medication... From the very first time we met her in 1991, she was having that problem: took pills to go to sleep, pills to get up, pills for any little pain. She was like a hypochondriac. She abused them. She was on 20 different medications that I knew about."
The body that brought Anna Nicole Smith money, men and fame went under a medical examiner's knife Friday. Despite all the talk of drug use, there were no findings of it.
"There were no findings that would indicate continuing drug abuse," said Dr. Joshua Perper, the Broward medical examiner. He called the process a "medical puzzle" and said it would take three to five weeks to conclude the investigation.
Police say they did find prescription medications but no illegal drugs in the hotel room where Smith collapsed Thursday afternoon.
Three men claim to be the girl's father: attorney Howard K. Stern, Smith's most recent companion; Larry Birkhead, a former boyfriend; and, in another bizarre twist to the case, the husband of actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, Prince Frederick von Anhalt claimed Friday that he might be the father of Smith's infant daughter. Also, on Saturday, the New York Daily News reported the possibility that Smith used the frozen sperm of her late oil tycoon husband to become pregnant with Dannielynn.
But Redding says, "I think the photographer, Larry Birkhead, is the dad. If you look at photographs and videos, there are similarities between their faces."
He also says that he never saw von Ahhalt around Smith back in the '90s, nor did he ever hear about him. "I find it really hard to believe," adds Redding.
He also says that while he believes Anna Nicole Smith would have wanted Dannielynn to remain in Stern's custody, he himself feels. "I would like to see the little girl go with whoever the real father is, and I think it will turn out to be Mr. Birkhead."