Anna Nicole Smith always had a knack for attracting attention – without even scratching the surface Anna Nicole Smith's final year contained childbirth, child death, paternity disputes, fake marriages and, yesterday, her own death.

Anna Nicole Smith died yesterday after being found unconscious in her Florida hotel room. A post-mortem on Anna Nicole Smith's body is set to take place later today to discover the cause of death. Anna Nicole Smith, who was 39, leaves behind a five-month-old daughter, two scrapping potential baby-daddies and probably all sorts of lawsuits.

There were times when Anna Nicole Smith was most predominantly famous for either marrying an almost-dead oil billionaire or starring in The Anna Nicole Smith Show, a reality TV that was almost the dictionary definition of 'car-crash'. But in her final months that notoriety would seem like a picnic compared to what Anna Nicole Smith had to go through; endless personal and legal highs and – more frequently – lows that culminated yesterday in her own death at 39. CNN reports on Anna Nicole Smith's death:

Smith died Thursday at a South Florida hospital after being discovered unconscious in her hotel room. The reality TV star, Playboy Playmate and former Guess model was 39… Smith checked into the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida, on Monday with her lawyer and boyfriend, Howard K. Stern. Smith's private nurse called hotel workers at 1:38 p.m. and security officials went to the room, Seminole Police Chief Charlie Tiger said. Before rescue workers arrived, Smith's bodyguard performed CPR on her, Tiger said. She was taken to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, where she was pronounced dead at 2:49 p.m.

Only last June everything seemed so different for Anna Nicole Smith – she had just announced her pregnancy and was living a new life in the Bahamas. But then disaster struck – shortly after the birth of her daughter, Anna Nicole Smith's 20-year-old son Daniel died, with subsequent examinations revealing a cocktail of drugs to be the cause of death. But Anna Nicole Smith's problems didn't end there – her laywers quit, the legal status of her residency in the Bahamas was called into question and then people started arguing over the fatherhood of her new daughter.

According to Anna Nicole Smith, Dannielynn Hope's father was Howard K Stern – the lawyer that she had apparently fell in love with at the US Supreme Court while battling for a big slice of her dead oil billionaire husband's will. Anna Nicole Smith and Howard K Stern loved each other so much that there was even a fake wedding on a boat to prove it, but it wasn't enough to convince everyone. A photographer, Larry Birkhead, also claimed that Dannielynn Hope was his and started putting together a claim for a DNA paternity test that Anna Nicole Smith frantically tried – and failed – to avoid.

And now Anna Nicole Smith is dead, Larry Birkhead has filed for an emergency order to obtain DNA samples – and a hearing was scheduled to take place at 8:30am this morning in Los Angeles. Anna Nicole Smith's lawyer Ron Rale has stated that he'll oppose the order.

It looks like, even in death, Anna Nicole Smith can still inspire the same feelings of shock, confusion and contention that she revelled in during her short life.

Read more:

Autopsy scheduled for Anna Nicole Smith – CNN