Former Playboy Playmate and billionaire's widow Anna Nicole Smith has died at the age of 39 after apparently collapsing in a Florida hotel room, her lawyer said today.
"I can confirm that she is deceased. It's as shocking to me as to you guys," Smith's attorney, Ronald Rale, said. "I don't know anything further. (Her lawyer and husband) Howard (K. Stern) obviously is speechless and grieving.
The sudden death of Smith came just five months after Smith's 20-year-old son, Daniel Smith, died in the Bahamas three days after the birth of her daughter.
Smith was found in her hotel room and given CPR by Seminole tribal fire rescue and Hollywood fire rescue workers, said Michael Bloom, president of the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida.
Smith's nurse called hotel workers at the hotel at 1.38pm and security went to the hotel room, hotel officials said. Fire rescue workers from both the Seminole Indian tribe and from Hollywood arrived minutes later and Smith was taken to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood at 2.10pm.
Smith had been ordered to have her five-month-old baby girl undergo a paternity test as part of a lawsuit by an ex-boyfriend, Larry Birkhead. Birkhead sued Smith in October, demanding she have the paternity test because he believed he was the father of the girl.
Smith had said her lawyer, Howard K. Stern, is the father of the baby.