Anna Nicole Smith’s ex-girlfriend says pair secretly wed in Netflix film You Don’t Know Me
Anna Nicole Smith’s ex-girlfriend says the pair secretly wed during the 1990s. (L. Cohen/WireImage)
Netflix’s Anna Nicole Smith documentary You Don’t Know Me puts the late star’s bisexuality centre stage – with former girlfriend Missy Byrum claiming the pair secretly wed.
The film is the streaming service’s latest offering in a long line of efforts to reframe the stories of sidelined or mistreated female stars such as Pamela Anderson, Britney Spears and Princess Diana.
Directed and produced by Ursula Macfarlane, You Don’t Know Me traces late Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith’s early life and upbringing all the way through to her wicked mistreatment at the hands of the media in the 1990s and the battle with drugs that eventually claimed her life in 2007 at the age of 39.
Often forgotten or purposefully ignored is Anna Nicole Smith’s alleged bisexuality – until now.
One of the main narrators of You Don’t Know Me is Missy Byrum, who has spoken to PEOPLE about her relationship with Smith, which she says began in 1992 before a secret, backyard wedding in 1993.
“She gave me a set of rings and we got married in the backyard by the pool with champagne. … She wanted me to have a baby with her,” Byrum told the publication.
“But I always knew it wasn’t ever going to work out because she was never, ever going to settle down with one person.”
Byrum also opened up about Smith’s creation of the “character of Anna Nicole”, which originated while the latter was stripping under the stage name ‘Nicki’.
“Nicki adapted to get what she needed,” Byrum said.
“She started to manifest the character of Anna Nicole [Smith]” years before Guess designer Paul Marciano gave her the name. “She learned from stripping that guys like to believe you’re stupid if you’re that pretty. She always said, ‘It takes a smart person to be really dumb.'”
Director Macfarlane told PEOPLE that tthe late Smith was an “icon of female perfection.”
“Throughout her life, she was just trying to be what she thought other people wanted her to be”, the filmmaker said. “I don’t know if Anna Nicole truly knew who she herself was.”
You Don’t Know Me is available to stream on Netflix now.
