United States:Former Playboy playmate Anna Nicole Smith, who took her fight to inherit from her aged billionaire husband to the US Supreme Court, has died at the age of 39 after collapsing in a Florida hotel room, her lawyer said yesterday.
"I can confirm that she is deceased. It's as shocking to me as to you guys," 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 her 20-year-old son, Daniel, 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 after her nurse called for help, said Michael Bloom, president of the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. She was taken to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Florida.
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 Howard K Stern was the father of the baby. - (Reuters)