These days, he's living the dad life. But he was once caught in the media firestorm
that was Anna Nicole Smith. From a sloppy first kiss, to an international custody battle, here's
the scoop on Larry and Anna Nicole's romance. Anna Nicole met Larry Birkhead at Louisville's
infamous Barnstable-Brown Gala the night before the Kentucky Derby.
At the time, Anna Nicole was filming her reality TV series, "The Anna Nicole Show,"
and it seems that she had her eye on Larry from the start. In 2017, Larry recalled, to "20/20,"
"She kept waving at me and blowing kisses, and I mean, she knew how to work the camera."
Not too long after, Larry was hired to photograph Anna Nicole at Camp Kindle,
where she was involved with a program for kids living with HIV and AIDS.
And it was during this time that the pair really got to know each other.
"Kiss me."
"…But she said, 'Oh, honey, you're so cute, you're so cute.' That's goin' above the bed right there."
But while sparks flew between them, the budding romance was kept hidden from the public.
Claiming she wanted him out of the view of fans, Larry told "20/20,"
"No one ever knew that I was her boyfriend, the whole time we dated."
As you might expect of a Hollywood duo, the pair had their share of problems throughout
their romance. And there were several times when Larry thought about walking
away from the relationship. In 2020, he chatted with Fox News, revealing,
"My relationship with her was actually two years plus
and we covered a lot of territory in that. There [were] a lot of ups and downs."
"My relationship with Anna was never — it was never a fairytale story."
While filming the Lifetime series "Hopelessly in Love," Larry opened up about some of the
low points. In 2005, the couple went on vacation together — but the mood quickly
deteriorated. He claimed Anna Nicole got upset because he had hung out with one of
his good friends who reportedly looked like Marilyn Monroe. Larry explained,
"I think Anna just got jealous. Anna thought it was competition."
The pair then got into an argument after Larry found a photo of Anna Nicole giving
the middle finger, on one of his rolls of film.
They broke up shortly after, but they wouldn't be apart for long.
From an outsider's perspective looking in, it would almost seem that Anna Nicole was actually
in a relationship with two men: her attorney, friend, and confidant Howard K. Stern, and then
her boyfriend, Larry. And for the most part, Stern went everywhere Smith and Birkhead did.
In "Hopelessly in Love," Birkhead talked about the dynamics of his relationship with Stern, claiming,
"[He] didn't always accept the fact I was there. […] [It] always felt like a competition of sorts,
it was like being on 'The Bachelor' and like who's going to get the next rose or something."
"I knew what the truth was, but at the same time,
I knew what the perception of me was in the media."
Larry also revealed that anytime he spoke with Anna Nicole about it,
she would always side with her lawyer, not Larry. Apparently, Larry also claimed that Stern didn't
want pictures of the actual couple out in public. As TooFab noted, Stern allegedly wanted paparazzi
to take photos of him with Anna Nicole instead. When Larry finally put his foot down about the
poor treatment, Anna Nicole reportedly made sure she was pictured with Larry shortly afterwards.
After a couple of months of dating Larry, Anna Nicole reportedly had asked him to marry her. But
Larry didn't think they were ready to take that next step. As he revealed to Larry King in 2007,
"At that point, it would have been for the wrong reasons, you know,
not knowing her and not really, you know — I wanted to make sure it was for the right reasons."
Still, he did give Anna Nicole a ring when she got pregnant with their daughter, Dannielynn. But he
made sure to specify that he didn't consider it to be an engagement ring. He explained to Larry King,
"She wanted a 10-carat, and I was kind of downscaling it to a 4-carat. But you know,
she was on Tiffanys.com, and I was kind of going to,
you know, Walmart.com or something, you know, something a little bit less money."
"I don't wanna be called a gold-digger because I'm not."
Looking back, Larry also guessed that if he and Anna Nicole had been able to
work through their disagreements earlier in their relationship,
it's possible they would have gotten married one day. He said,
"I think that it probably would have been more of a fairy tale ending than this tragic ending."
Anna Nicole and Larry were ecstatic about having their first child together.
But any celebration was put on hold because the pregnancy had to be kept private. After all,
Anna Nicole was a diet pill spokesperson and had movie producers interested in casting her.
Absolutely no one could know that she was expecting.
"Trimspa, baby."
Revealing the stress it put on the couple, Larry explained to Oprah,
"She was a diet pill spokesperson, so the fact that she was pregnant was
supposed to be a big secret because there's not that many markets for a
pregnant diet pill spokesperson. So that created some tension."
According to ABC News, about five months into Smith's pregnancy,
the couple got into another argument, which would ultimately cause Smith to pack her bags
and leave. That's when she flew to the Bahamas, where she stayed at a house with Howard K.
Stern. Larry was left in the dark about the pregnancy, and everything else.
"I had to watch my own child being born on television."
Apparently, having been kept completely out of the loop about his own daughter,
Larry admitted to Oprah,
"I had to go onto Anna's website and pay a subscription to just see
how she was telling her fans how the baby was." Just months after giving birth to their daughter,
Dannielynn, Anna Nicole died tragically on February 8, 2007.
At the time, Larry was forced to order a paternity test because Howard K. Stern
was the one listed as the father on Dannielynn's birth certificate. After
the DNA results proved that Larry was indeed her real father, he famously announced to the press,
"My baby's gonna be coming home pretty soon. It's been a long road,
and I'm happy to have this behind me and to be able to start a life with my daughter."
"I hate to be the one that told you this, but, I told you so."
In a merciful twist for the family,
Stern was nothing but supportive after the verdict. As he disclosed to CNN,
"I am not going to fight Larry Birkhead on custody. We're going to do what we can
to make sure that the best interests of Dannielynn are carried out. And
I'm going to do whatever I can to make sure he gets sole custody."
Birkhead did receive sole custody of his daughter, and over the years,
he has done his best to provide her with the most normal life possible,
far away from the limelight. And by all accounts, it looks like he's crushing it as a devoted dad.
"If I have a baby, I'll never be lonely again. And I had my son."
Anna Nicole's son, Daniel — who she had with her first husband, Billy Smith — traveled to
visit his mother in the Bahamas, and to meet his half-sister, Dannielynn. But tragedy struck only
three days after Dannielynn arrived, when 20-year-old Daniel died from an accidental
prescription drug overdose while lying next to Anna Nicole in her hospital bed.
During that time, Larry revealed that he had spoken with Anna Nicole on the phone a few times,
and he claimed she was more depressed than ever. As Larry explained to "20/20,"
"She would have these conversations where she would start crying. And she'd say something
about Daniel, and she'd hang the phone up. At the funeral, she tried to climb in the casket."
"I knew that Anna would be in no shape on her own to take care of my daughter."
Birkhead had attempted to coax Anna Nicole back to the States
before Dannielynn arrived, but with no success. As he shared with Fox News,
"My goal at the time was to try to get her to come back to the U.S. from the Bahamas,
and I had almost got her to that place of saying that she would do it."
Larry has always made it a point to share the good and the bad with his daughter,
Dannielynn, about her mother's past. As he revealed to Entertainment Tonight,
the pair regularly visit Anna Nicole's gravesite in the Bahamas.
And Larry makes sure to portray the star to their daughter as honestly as possible.
"I don't sugar coat it. I say there are some things there that your mom
did, and that, you know, I try to make her learn from it."
As he noted, Larry doesn't want his daughter to learn about her mom from the internet and
be filled with lies about Anna Nicole. Instead, he makes sure that he's providing his daughter
with beautiful memories, while telling her the truth about her mother's legacy.
"She'll see things, you know, when she grows up, that not necessarily all are true."
He added,
"There is YouTube these days and that stuff's out there, and my daughter likes
to Google already and I'm trying to keep her from it. […] Was [Anna Nicole] wild? Yeah,
sure. But a great lady, and a great mom." Ever since Anna Nicole's death in 2007,
Larry has been busy trying to put all the pieces together, attempting to figure out
just what led to such a devastating end for the star. And as he has guessed,
between the birth of their daughter and her son's death all within three days,
it was simply too much for the mother to bear. As Larry explained to Wendy Williams in 2017,
"You've got to think: My daughter was born on September 7, and on September 10,
Daniel died. So you go from that extreme high and low,
and how do you process that in your mind? Although her death certificate will list a
different cause — an accidental overdose — in my mind, I think she truly died of a broken heart."
Birkhead recalled the day that Anna Nicole died, revealing that he never received a
phone call about her death. Instead, he heard about it on the news. And at first,
he thought it was just a hoax for some sort of publicity.
Larry also talked about the Anna Nicole that the public never got to know, sharing,
"There were two different personalities. I came to know her at some events away from the camera,
with no makeup on, just hanging out with all the kids and giving money
and time [at charity events] — things that you don't hear people talk about
when they talk about Anna. And that's kind of when our relationship grew."
On February 8, 2022, Larry took to Instagram to pen an emotional letter on the anniversary
of Anna Nicole's death. He shared a sweet photo of himself with the late star, writing,
"Still remembering this one 15 years after her death. She was truly one of a kind. Today,
I remember your heart, your soul and your beauty, both inside and out. Your love is alive still to
this day, in the form of a truly one of a kind teenager with her Mom's smile, beauty
and courage. Thanks to Anna's fans for helping keep her memory alive. We love you Anna Nicole."
In a "20/20" special that aired five years prior, Larry sorted through a storage unit with all of
Anna Nicole's belongings. And he packed up some of her most memorable items to show to Dannielynn.
During the special moment, he reflected on Smith's life and legacy, explaining,
"When you talk about Anna Nicole, there were a lot of happy moments
for her. There was a lot of highs before there was a lot of lows."
Explaining that he hopes Anna Nicole will be remembered for the love she shared with
her fans and those closest to her — as well as her generous heart — Larry added,
"Anna should be remembered as
this larger-than-life figure that was really a caring, giving person. A beautiful lady."
At least when it comes to her daughter,
Anna Nicole will be remembered as the queen she always aspired to be.
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