HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Larry Birkhead remembered former lover Anna Nicole Smith on the one-year anniversary of her death today, writing a touching tribute on his official Web site.
The 35-year-old Birkhead wrote:
I LOVE YOU AND HOPE YOU ARE PROUD OF OUR BEAUTIFUL BABY GIRL. PLEASE WATCH OVER US AND GUIDE US ON OUR JOURNEY THROUGH LIFE. WE MISS YOU.
2-8-07
LOVE,
LARRY AND DANNIELYNN
Birkhead, a native of Louisville, Kentucky, first met Smith in May 2004 at the Trish Barnstable Brown Gala, one of the major Kentucky Derby parties that attracts many celebrities.
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 through DNA testing to be the father of Smith’s infant daughter, Dannielynn, born Sept. 7, 2006. Smith had previously claimed that Stern, her attorney and boyfriend, was the father. She tried to avoid a case and potential paternity test by moving to Nassau, Bahamas, where Dannielynn was born.
When Smith died last year, Birkhead filed an emergency order to get custody of the child. In April 2007, paternity was established for Birkhead and a Bahamian court authorized custody transfer of Dannielynn from Stern to him. He 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.
