Larry Birkhead, the former boyfriend of Anna Nicole Smith, is the biological father of the Playboy playmate’s 7-month-old daughter who might inherit a fortune, he announced Tuesday.
The announcement of the DNA test results, carried out under the authority of the courts in the Bahamas, is the latest step in the saga of Smith, the former model and cable television star who died Feb. 8 in a Florida hotel at 39.
“I told you so,” Birkhead said after a paternity hearing.
“My baby is going to be coming home pretty soon,” he said as cheers erupted from the crowd.
Asked what was next, he said: “I’m going to the toy store.” Even though the tests seem to establish the origin of the child, whose full name is Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern, it will be the courts that decide on guardianship.
Howard K. Stern, Smith’s last companion and who is listed as Dannielynn’s father on her birth certificate, could continue his legal claim. Also fighting for guardianship over the child is Virgie Arthur, Smith’s mother, who sued in Florida to have her daughter buried in their native Texas.
The Florida courts eventually turned Smith’s body over to Dannielynn and a temporary guardian ordered Smith to be buried in the Bahamas, next to her son, Daniel, 20, who died Sept. 10 of an apparent drug overdose.
Birkhead, a Burbank, Calif., photographer, has claimed paternity of the child since before Dannielynn’s birth in the Bahamas in September. Several other men have also claimed to be the father.
In addition to deciding who will raise the child, there is also the question of Smith’s estate, which could reach hundreds of millions of dollars.
Before she died, Smith had been fighting for a share of the estate of her husband, Texas oilman J. Howard Marshall II, who died in 1995. That case, which went up to the U.S. Supreme Court, is pending in federal courts.
A DNA sample was taken from Dannielynn at the end of March and it was analyzed by Dr. Michael Baird, who brought his findings to the court in the Bahamas.
Despite the legal fighting between Stern and Birkhead, there have been reports that the men have held discussions about the child and the estate.
If the results show that Birkhead is the father, Stern will relinquish custody of the girl to him and the two men would “cooperate in transitioning the child,” said James Neavitt, an attorney for Stern.
“I think they have some understanding about how they’re going to deal with it,” Neavitt told the news agency.
The hearing in the Bahamas was closed to the media and public.
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