Smith’s ex-boyfriend testifies he tried to curb drug use

ANNA Nicole Smith’s ex-boyfriend testified yesterday that he tried to curb the former centrefold’s drug use and the judge referred to her long-time companion, Howard K Stern, as “maybe an enabler”.

Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin began the sixth day of a hearing to decide the fate of Smith’s body with a long diatribe, saying she lacked a strong support system and speculated her relationships with estranged mother Virgie Arthur and ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead soured because of her overuse of prescription drugs.

“We have Stern. Is he a bad guy or is he a fellow that has some form of a love for her? We don’t know,” Judge Seidlin said. “Whatever relationship he had with her, he would be called maybe an enabler.”

Stern’s attorney, Krista Barth, rose in objection, but the judge continued in what promised to be a long day of testimony.

The judge set a self-imposed deadline to rule by Friday, so Smith’s embalmed body will not decompose too much for a public viewing.

Ms Arthur wants to bring Smith home to her native Texas, and attorney-turned-boyfriend Mr Stern wants a burial in the Bahamas, where her son, Daniel, died of apparent drug-related causes last year.

Mr Birkhead testified that when he visited the Bahamas home Smith and Mr Stern shared last year, he became increasingly concerned about her drug use.

“They kept bringing more and more drugs in the house,” he said, adding that Mr Stern told him that Smith needed the prescriptions to live.

Mr Birkhead said he suggested she enter drug rehabilitation, but that she told him: “I’m not a drug addict and quit calling me one.”

Smith, aged 39, died on February 8 in a Florida hotel, but the cause is still unknown.