The family was celebrating the birth of Nicole's daughter when the sudden tragedy befell on them.
Editor's note: This article was originally published on April 10, 2020. It has since been updated.
A mom loves to tuck her child into bed every night and wake him up from sleep every day but what happens when she learns that he would never wake up again? She is left distraught! Late model and TV personality Anna Nicole Smith slipped into a state of shock when she found her son lying unresponsive next to her. She tried to wake him up frantically but he lay there, lifeless.
Nicole's 20-year-old son, Daniel Wayne Smith, went to see his newborn half-sister at the hospital, and he stayed with his mother that night. The next morning, when Nicole tried to wake him up he was not responsive, as per Fox News. In a rush, she called Howard K. Stern, her lawyer who was present at the hospital. They tried to save Daniel but it was too late. He died by his mother's bedside on September 10, 2006, only three days after his sister was born. It was later reported that Daniel died of an overdose.
Daniel's demise threw Nicole in a state of shock and she refused to believe that he is gone forever. "Anna Nicole was so distraught at the loss of Daniel that she refused to leave his side and it was necessary to sedate her in order to check her out of the hospital," stated Michael Scott, an attorney, according to CBS News.
"When a mother loses a child -- I know it took them four hours to pry her off of his body. She wouldn’t allow him to be buried, she just had to be next to him and near him," recalled Margaret Cho, a close friend of Anna, according to Huffington Post.
The pain and shock struck her such that she suffered a memory loss at the time, but she later recalled to CBS News how she heard of his passing away. Talking about how Stern broke the news to her, she said, "He said: 'Sit down'... he said: 'Daniel's dead.' I said: 'What are you talking about? and he said: 'Daniel's dead.'" She continued, "I thought they were playing that game they play on TV... Punk'd. I don't understand why God took him and didn't take me."
Nicole kept struggling to deal with the loss of her child until the end of her days. Appearing in Larry King Live, Stern said, "She's struggling with her emotions. It's been very rough, and she said that she didn't want to trade out children: one to be born and another to die," according to Local 10.
The loss of her son took a massive toll on Nicole. On 8 February 2007 just five months after Daniel's demise, Nicole too passed away from an overdose. In an interview with People, Stern added, "Anna and Daniel were inseparable. Daniel was without question the most important person in Anna’s life. From the time I met her, everything was for Daniel. I would say that physically, she died last week, but in a lot of ways, emotionally she died when Daniel died."
Today, as we think about Nicole and her son, Daniel's tragic demises, we could only wish that a tragedy as this should never fall upon any mother or family!
References:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tears-as-anna-nicole-tells-her-story/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/anna-nicole-sedated-after-sons-death/
https://people.com/celebrity/howard-k-stern-anna-nicole-was-my-whole-world/
https://www.foxnews.com/story/anna-nicole-smiths-20-year-old-son-dies-days-after-she-gives-birth
https://www.local10.com/florida%20files/2019/03/18/anna-nicole-smiths-last-days-last-hours/
