Larry Birkhead

Larry E. Birkhead (born January 22, 1973) was a partner of American Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith and is the father of her daughter, Dannielynn. He was in a child custody battle for his daughter until DNA results proved his paternity. Birkhead, the 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 Heuser, and a half-sister, Judy Birkhead. He graduated in 1991 from Louisville's Doss High School. He currently resides in Burbank, California. 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. When Smith died on February 8, 2007, Birkhead filed an emergency order to obtain custody of the child. He had the support of Smith's mother, Virgie Arthur, in his claim that he was the father of Smith's then five-month-old daughter. Although several men also claimed paternity (including Howard K. Stern, Mark Hatten, Frédéric Prinz von