Pol' and Patrik: Anna Nicole Series - Daniel Wayne Smith. Video Games, Braces and Life With the Playboy Model Mom.

In this deeply personal installment of our Anna Nicole Smith: Portrait of an Icon series, we open Chapter Two of our book and remember

the person who was truly at the center of Anna Nicole Smith’s world: her son,

Daniel Wayne Smith.

We knew Daniel away from the headlines and cameras—as the

quiet, brilliant, soft-spoken young man who loved books, video games, trivia

and simply being close to his mom. While Anna became one of the most

photographed women in the world, Daniel wanted almost nothing to do with fame, and we share what it was really like watching him navigate life as Anna Nicole Smith’s son.

We take you inside the mother-son relationship the public rarely got to see. Anna was fiercely protective, surprisingly strict and completely hands-on with Daniel. We remember the everyday moments that showed who she was when the cameras were gone: cooking for him, teaching him how to

brush his teeth with braces, fighting over a messy bedroom, worrying about

college and doing everything she could to give him the childhood and future she never had. Daniel wasn’t just her son—he was her rock, her grounding force and, for so many years, the one constant in her life.

We also revisit some of our funniest and most unforgettable memories with him: Daniel hiding from cameras, Pol’ trying to understand what Daniel was doing on the computer, Patrik playing a celebrity boxing video game

with him while Anna’s digital character battled in the ring, and the wild