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"We became lovers, you know? And I mean real sober lovers — it was a conscious thing. She said that she loved me," she claimed.
Shortly before her very public marriage to J. Howard Marshall, Anna Nicole Smith allegedly tied the knot with a female friend with whom she had a secret relationship.
At least that's what Melissa "Missy" Byrum is saying in an interview with People, as well as the new Netflix documentary "Anna Nicole Smith: You Don't Know Me."
According to Byrum, the two met while working at a Houston strip club together in the late '80s, before beginning a romantic relationship in 1992. Byrum, who referred to Smith as "Nicki," said the pair grew close as Missy helped take care of Anna's son Daniel, while traveling together "all the time."
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"We became lovers, you know? And I mean real sober lovers — it was a conscious thing. She said that she loved me," Byrum claimed, before stating she wasn't Smith's "first female lover" either. "We'd now been through some bad relationships, both of us, with men. We decided that we just didn't need men. We were gonna raise Daniel together."
Smith’s friend, Pol' Atteu, also described the actress as sexually "fluid," adding, "We just did not have a name for it back then."
Byrum said Smith proposed to her in 1993 and they got married "in the backyard by the pool with champagne." The ceremony wasn't legally officiated and the housekeeper was the only guest in attendance, she claimed.
"She wanted me to have a baby with her," said Missy. "But I always knew it wasn't ever going to work out because she was never, ever going to settle down with one person."
"She needed more love than any one human being could give her," she added, before claiming Smith's addiction to painkillers ultimately led to the end of their relationship.
"She was very much like a man when she made a conquest. You were a notch on her belt and then she's onto the next one," said Missy. "She had that prowess where she wanted new stuff. And once you gave into her, once she conquered you, you just weren't a challenge anymore."
Smith -- who was also previously married to her late son Daniel's father Billy Wayne Smith from 1985-1993 -- married billionaire J. Howard Marshall in 1994. The two remained married until his death in 1995, before a nasty court battle over his estate. Anna would later welcome daughter Dannielynn with Larry Birkhead on September 7, 2006 -- just days before Daniel died of an overdose at 20. She too died of an overdose five months later.
"Anna Nicole Smith: You Don't Know Me" is streaming now on Netflix.
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