On June 27, 1994, J. Howard Marshall tied the knot with Anna Nicole Smith. The billionaire was 89 years old, while Smith, a former stripper, was just 26.
Their marriage caught many by surprise, and Marshall’s death only 14 months later sparked a lengthy legal battle between Smith and Marshall’s family over his wealth.
Despite the speculation, both Marshall and Smith always maintained that their marriage wasn’t about money. They recounted meeting each other in October 1991 at a Houston strip club as a moment where two lonely souls found each other.
So, who was the billionaire who fell in love with Anna Nicole Smith before she became a household name? What brought them to Gigi’s club on that significant day? And how did Marshall’s death after just over a year of marriage result in one of the biggest legal disputes in American history?
How J. Howard Marshall Became A Billionaire Oil Tycoon
James Howard Marshall II was born on January 24, 1905, and lived a remarkable life long before meeting Anna Nicole Smith. According to New York Magazine, he worked for the Department of the Interior after graduating from Yale Law School and was influential during the Truman and Eisenhower administrations. However, he earned his billions in the oil industry.
US News reported that Marshall had been involved in the oil business for a long time. He wrote about oil laws for the Yale Law Journal, authored the Connally Hot Oil Act of 1935, and served as a lawyer for Standard Oil. His major breakthrough came through his dealings with the Koch brothers.
New York Magazine mentioned that Marshall was friends with Fred Koch, who offered him a minority stake in what would become Koch Industries. Marshall became a director of the company and one of its largest shareholders, significantly increasing his wealth.
During his journey, Marshall married twice and had two sons, J. Howard Marshall III and E. Pierce Marshall. His personal life, however, was marked by tragedy. His first marriage ended in divorce, and his second wife passed away from Alzheimer’s disease in 1991 after 30 years of marriage. That same year, his long-time mistress died following a face-lift surgery.
Overwhelmed by these losses, J. Howard Marshall fell into a deep depression. Then, one significant day in October 1991, his driver suggested they visit a local strip club.
Meeting Anna Nicole Smith
New York Magazine revealed that the simultaneous loss of J. Howard Marshall’s wife and mistress had plunged the oil tycoon into a deep depression. His staff feared that the 86-year-old might be suicidal, so his driver proposed they visit a Houston strip club named Gigi’s to find a “new young lady.”
At Gigi’s, a curvaceous blonde captured Marshall’s attention. Her name was Vickie Lynn Hogan, who would later become famous as Anna Nicole Smith.
Until then, Smith had led a life that was starkly different from J. Howard Marshall’s. Born in Texas to a teenage mother, she had dropped out of high school and spent the past few years doing various jobs to support herself and her son. However, Smith harbored big dreams of becoming a model.
On that significant day, Smith was working the day shift because she wasn’t considered an outstanding dancer. J. Howard Marshall, on the other hand, couldn’t go out at night. In the right place at the right time, they connected instantly.
“He had no will to live and I went over to see him,” Smith told 20/20 in 2000, calling J. Howard Marshall “really, really funny” and “brilliant.” “He got a little twinkle in his eyes and he asked me to dance for him, and I did.”
The following day, over lunch at a local hotel, Smith told Marshall she needed to return to work. According to New York Magazine, Marshall responded by giving her an envelope filled with ten one-hundred-dollar bills, saying, “Don’t go to work, my Lady Love. You don’t have to ever go back to work.”
Marshall then began showering Smith with lavish gifts, like a red Mercedes convertible. He also frequently proposed marriage to her, but Smith repeatedly turned him down, expressing that she wanted to focus on her career.
Indeed, Smith’s career was beginning to take off. Around the same time she met the oil tycoon, Smith posed for a Playboy scout searching for potential models. Playboy editors in Los Angeles liked her look, flew her out to L.A., and featured her — along with her 42DD augmented breasts — on the March 1992 cover of Playboy. By May, Anna Nicole Smith had posed for the centerfold.
To J. Howard Marshall’s joy, Smith became the 1993 Playboy Playmate of the Year. He continued to lavish her with gifts, including a stay at Marilyn Monroe’s Los Angeles bungalow and other properties. He proposed again and again until Smith finally accepted in the spring of 1994.
J. Howard Marshall’s Death And The Dramatic Lawsuit That Ensued
J. Howard Marshall and Anna Nicole Smith got married at the White Dove wedding chapel in Houston during the summer of 1994. Their 63-year age gap drew significant media attention and mockery, with PEOPLE magazine humorously commenting:
“The bride wore cleavage. The 89-year-old groom, speaking from his wheelchair, assured the 11 people in attendance that he sure did adore his new 26-year-old wife, for whom he already had purchased $1 million worth of jewelry.”
However, their marital happiness was short-lived. Just 14 months later, J. Howard Marshall fell ill.
On August 4, 1995, J. Howard Marshall passed away at the age of 90, after a struggle with stomach cancer. Almost immediately, a legal battle erupted between Anna Nicole Smith and J. Howard’s younger son, E. Pierce Marshall, over his estate.
Despite J. Howard Marshall’s apparent affection for his wife, he left her nothing in his will. New York Magazine reported that this was because E. Pierce ensured that Smith would receive none of the family fortune. He even had his father, who was unable to read without his glasses, sign multiple documents relinquishing control of his estate.
Their legal disputes dragged on so long that they outlasted both parties. E. Pierce Marshall passed away in 2006 from “a brief and extremely aggressive” infection, and Anna Nicole Smith died the following year from an accidental overdose. In the end, she didn’t receive any of the estimated $1.6 billion fortune that J. Howard Marshall had left behind.
Despite the ridicule she faced for her marriage to J. Howard Marshall, Anna Nicole Smith maintained that it was a genuine love affair. She told ABC:
“He knew me when I was nobody and that’s what people don’t understand, and I don’t wanna be called a gold digger because I’m not. I could’ve married him a week after we met, or two weeks after we met. I could’ve married him years before, and I didn’t … I went out and I made something of myself.”
