Larry Birkhead

Larry E. Birkhead (born 22 January 1973) was a romantic partner of the late Anna Nicole Smith and the father of her daughter, Dannielynn. He was in a custody battle for his daughter until DNA results proved his paternity.

Birkhead, son of Larry L. Birkhead and Nancy Birkhead, is a native of Louisville, Kentucky. Birkhead has a twin brother, Lewis, as well as a sister, Angela Johnson, and a half-sister, Judy Birkhead. He graduated in 1991 from Louisville's Doss High School. He currently resides in Burbank, California.

Birkhead appeared on MADtv in a parody of Family Feud. Birkhead and Smith initially met in May 2004 at the Trish Barnstable Brown Gala, one of the major Louisville-area Kentucky Derby parties that attracts many celebrities.

On April 10 2007, a Bahamian court ruled that DNA testing proved that Larry Birkhead is the father of Dannielynn, the daughter of Anna Nicole Smith.

Claim of paternity
Amongst several men making paternity claims, including Howard K. Stern, Mark Hatten, Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt and Smith's former bodyguard Alexander Denk, Birkhead was proven, by a DNA test provided by Michael L. Baird, to be the father of Smith's infant daughter, Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern. Smith claimed that her attorney and boyfriend, Howard K. Stern, was the father.

When Anna Nicole Smith died on February 8 2007, Birkhead filed an emergency order to get custody of the child. Larry Birkhead had the support of Smith's mother, Virgie Arthur, in his claim that he was the biological father of Smith's five-month-old daughter, Dannielynn.

Birkhead appeared before Judge Larry Seidlin to give testimony at the proceedings to adjudicate the remains of Smith, and was compelled to provide information about himself, including his income. He revealed that a year before the conception of Dannielynn, Smith had been pregnant with his baby and miscarried during the first few weeks of pregnancy.

Anna Nicole Smith and her companion Howard K. Stern initially absconded to the Bahamas to avoid paternity testing, but after Smith's death in February 2007 paternity testing became necessary to resolve several pending court cases.

In April 2007 paternity was established for Larry and a Bahamian court authorized custody transfer of Dannielynn from Howard K. Stern to Larry Birkhead. Larry was also granted permission to have the birth certificate of his daughter changed so that the name Birkhead was added and the name Stern was removed. His daughter's legal name is now Dannielynn Hope Marshall Birkhead. On May 1 2007 Larry & Dannielynn returned to the United States in a chartered flight from the Bahamas to Louisville.

Sexuality
He is currently considering suing various tabloids which ran a story in which male model Kerrick Ross claims Birkhead is either gay or bisexual, and that they had sex on numerous occasions during a month long relationship in the 90s. Ross claims that Birkhead has never come out of the closet due to his Southern Baptist family's conservative morals. Birkhead has hired lawyer Marty Singer to sue for defamation.

Another claim of his alleged homosexuality came out again on September 3 2007. A new book by journalist Rita Cosby, Blonde Ambition, alleges that Birkhead and Howard K. Stern were lovers. It is also claimed that there is a sex tape of the two. Cosby has claimed to have never seen the tape, nor has the tape been made public. She claims that she has plans to back her sources who claim they walked in on Stern and Birkhead. Both Stern and Birkhead have said they plan to sue.