Ten Years After Her Death, Anna Nicole Smith's Doctor Speaks Out: 'She Was Not An Addict'

When Anna Nicole Smith was found dead in a Florida hotel room in 2007, authorities recovered nearly a dozen different prescription and illicit drugs from her bedside, many of them prescribed by the hundreds. The drugs included sedatives, muscle relaxers, painkillers and sleep aids.

Investigators soon charged several people in Smith’s inner circle with felonies related to her death.

Dr. Sandeep Kapoor was a Los Angeles physician who was alleged to have prescribed Smith with methadone and Vicodin, among other drugs. In 2009, he was charged with eight felonies, including conspiring to furnish controlled substances, unlawfully prescribing a controlled substance and obtaining fraudulent prescriptions. He was eventually cleared on all charges after the court found no significant evidence of wrongdoing.

Ten years after Smith’s death, Kapoor gives a rare interview on Scandal Made Me Famous, a docuseries on the Reelz Channel.

In the interview, Kapoor makes some startling claims, including an assertion that Smith was not addicted to drugs.

“I know there was a controversy” Kapoor tells the show. “‘Is she an addict? Isn’t she an addict?’ In court, in the legal terms, she was proved to not be an addict. And what does that mean? Well, that means that she had legitimate pain issues. That’s what was discovered in the trial, that she had legitimate pain issues for which she received pain medication and treatment for. She was not an addict.”

Smith’s relationship with Dr. Kapoor became tabloid fodder when photos surfaced of the two of them cuddling at a gay pride parade. On the show, Kapoor addresses the controversy. “I mean, it’s out there,” he says. “I wouldn’t necessarily, really classify her as a friend because it was one social occasion. I mean, a friend is someone you go to dinner with and hang out with on a regular basis. So it was that one day at the charity parade. I would say, yes, I made a misjudgment.”

“[My misjudgment] was, to party with her and to be seen in a very compromising position with her,” he continues. “I’m not even gonna downplay it. It is what it is. I’m a human being and, you know, I made a mistake that day. Before that, I’d never been having any kind of social relationship, and after that, I didn’t have any social relationship with her. But of course when you’re working with someone who has chronic pain and who relies on you for their medical care, it’s about trust. I certainly cared what happened to her.”

Scandal Made Me Famous combines reenactments, exclusive interviews and never-before-seen photos and video to tell the story of infamous crimes. The show is hosted by PEOPLE Senior Writer Steve Helling.

The Anna Nicole Smith episode includes interviews with several people who knew Smith through her ups and downs. The show will explore her notorious marriage to elderly oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall and the tragic death of her son, Daniel.

Scandal Made Me Famous airs on Saturday (9 p.m. ET) on the Reelz Channel.