On June 27, 1994, 26-year-old model and actress Anna Nicole Smith married 89-year-old billionaire oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II at the White Dove Wedding Chapel in Houston, Texas. The ceremony became one of the most heavily scrutinized and iconic media spectacles of the 1990s due to their 63-year age difference and Marshall’s vast fortune.
The wedding took place in an intimate setting with only eleven guests in attendance. Both the bride and groom dressed in all white. Smith wore a traditional cleaving white lace gown and veil while showcasing a 22-carat diamond ring. The elderly groom, who was in frail health, was wheeled up the aisle in a wheelchair to the song “Tonight I Celebrate My Love For You.” The couple sealed their vows with a kiss, and white doves were released inside the chapel.
The couple originally met three years prior in 1991 at a Houston strip club where Smith was working as a dancer before she found mainstream fame as a Playboy Playmate and Guess fashion model. Marshall was captivated by her and proposed multiple times while showering her with millions of dollars in lavish gifts, including homes, luxury cars, and diamond jewelry.
The union immediately sparked widespread public debate. Critics and tabloids widely labeled Smith a “gold-digger” targeting Marshall’s estimated $1.6 billion estate. Conversely, Smith always maintained that she genuinely loved Marshall, noting that he accepted her and brought stability to her and her young son.
Immediately following the ceremony, Smith famously left her new husband at the chapel to jet off for a scheduled photo shoot. The marriage was short-lived, lasting only 14 months before Marshall passed away from pneumonia at age 90 in August 1995.
Because Marshall excluded Smith from his official final will, his death sparked a grueling, multi-decade legal battle over the inheritance between Smith and Marshall’s son, E. Pierce Marshall. The case famously went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court twice. Ultimately, the legal system ground down both sides, and Smith passed away in 2007 without ever receiving any part of the billionaire’s fortune.
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