Anna Nicole Smith's ex Larry Birkhead honors her in an emotional tribute 15 years after her death

• "Your love is alive still to this day," Larry Birkhead wrote on Instagram to Anna Nicole Smith.
• Smith died on February 8, 2007 in Florida.

Photographer Larry Birkhead shared a tribute to late model and reality TV star Anna Nicole Smith on Tuesday to mark the 15th anniversary of her death.

"Today, I remember your heart, your soul and your beauty, both inside and out," he wrote in a post addressed to Smith on Instagram. "Your love is alive still to this day, in the form of a truly one of a kind teenager with her Mom's smile, beauty, and courage."

A post shared by Larry Birkhead (@larryanddannielynn)

Smith was a former Playboy model who rose to fame in part because of a reality TV show that chronicled her life, "The Anna Nicole Show," which aired for three seasons on E! from 2002 to 2004.

Smith died at age 39 on February 8, 2007, after being found unresponsive in a hotel room at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida, while on vacation with her then-partner, lawyer Howard K. Stern, People reported.

Her cause of death was later reported as "an accidental overdose with no other criminal element present," Seminole Police Department Chief Charlie Tiger said at a press conference at the time, according to People. Broward County medical examiner Dr. Joshua Perper said that there was evidence of "methadone, anti-anxiety and weight-reducing drugs and, possibly, vitamins" along with other substances in her system at the time.

Smith's daughter, Dannielynn, was only five months old when her mother died. Weeks after Dannielynn's birth, a legal disagreement arose between Stern and Birkhead over the child's paternity, with each man claiming they were Dannielynn's father, per CBS News. On April 10, 2007, Birkhead made a public statement saying that a DNA test had proved he was Dannielynn's father. He's had custody of his daughter since then.

While promoting the episode of docuseries "Hopelessly in Love" about their relationship on "Good Morning America" in 2020, Birkhead said that while most people thought he won the "DNA lottery" and conceived Dannielynn with Smith after a "one-night stand," he and Smith were actually in a two-year "long-term relationship" before her death.

He recalled on "Good Morning America" that "sparks flew" and "dishes flew" between them, hinting that they often got into heated arguments. "It was crazy," he said.

"We didn't have a relationship where we did red carpets and things like that. I was always behind the scenes," he said on GMA.

"She was truly one of a kind. She struggled for love and acceptance," Birkhead's Tuesday Instagram post about his former partner said, in part. "Just when she found a little piece of one or the other, life seemed to sabotage."

A movie called "Hurricanna," detailing how Smith's therapist Khristine tried to save her life during "a 36-hour odyssey in which she unknowingly delivers the fatal blow," is in the works, with Holly Hunter in talks to play the therapist, Deadline reported on Monday.