Larry Birkhead, Anna Nicole Smith's former lover and father to her daughter, Dannielynn,
has largely faded from view since the starlet's death in 2007. Let's find out how he and Dannielynn
are doing today.
Up until the early 2000s, Larry Birkhead was just a regular, blond haired and blue eyed
guy from Kentucky, plying his trade as a freelance photographer. Then his life forever changed
when he met model, actress, and tabloid magnet Anna Nicole Smith at a Kentucky Derby event.
Before long, he was whisked into Smith's high-profile world of celebrity events, galavanting around
Los Angeles, and her outrageous, hit reality series The Anna Nicole Show. As part of her
loyal inner circle of various friends, employees, and hangers-on, Birkhead was certainly devastated
when Smith passed away at age 39 in 2007. He will forever be linked to the late star,
because after some initial confusion, a paternity test eventually revealed Birkhead to be the
father of Smith's baby daughter, Dannielynn.
After Smith's tragic passing, Birkhead ditched the Hollywood lifestyle and returned to Kentucky
where he was raised, to give Dannielynn what he'd had — a relatively normal and quiet
childhood. He told Inside Edition in 2017,
"I think here in Kentucky is as normal as you can get. She loves school. She loves her
friends. I just hope that she dreams big and accomplishes a lot."
"She reminds me so much of her mom and as she gets older, and her features are changing,
it's just like having a little miniature Anna Nicole running around in so many ways."
Based on the family of two's public, shared Instagram account, they don't appear to get
up to much socializing, except for the occasional trip down to Disney World in Florida, or to
the Kentucky Derby across town.
According to a profile by Louisville TV station WAVE, Birkhead is a doting single parent.
He doesn't employ a nanny and usually drops off and picks up Dannielynn from school himself.
He reportedly earns his living working in photography and flipping houses.
The Anna Nicole Show was an iconic series among the mid-2000s boom of reality shows,
at a time when many of the most exciting and popular series claimed to offer an inside
look at the life of celebrities. The show couldn't very well continue after the one-of-a-kind
Smith passed away, but her former flame and father of her child obliged the public's demand
for more TV about his family.
Notably, he starred in a sad, made-for-TV documentary called Life After Anna Nicole:
The Larry & Dannielynn Story. He also appeared on a 2014 episode of ABC's Celebrity Wife
Swap. He even looked for long-term love — but didn't find it — on Bravo's The Millionaire
Matchmaker.
After a few years away from reality TV, Birkhead returned in 2020 with a small appearance in
an installment of Bravo's Vanderpump Rules, and in Tragic Beauty, a 20/20 special about
Smith. His story with his deceased love served as the basis for an episode of Lifetime's
documentary series Hopelessly in Love, a project Birkhead also executive produced.
Not even the millionaire matchmaker could find lasting love for Birkhead. He reportedly
doesn't date much. In fact, he told Us Weekly that the only night of the year he goes out
is to attend the annual Barnstable Brown Gala at the Kentucky Derby.
Nevertheless, Dannielynn really wants her dad to get back out there, according to Birkhead.
Speaking about the 2016 gala, he admitted,
"Danni said, 'Would you do me a favor at the party?' And I said, 'What?' And she said,
'Would you get yourself a date?' I looked at her and started laughing and she said,
'No, really, I'm serious. Get a date.'"
She also checked in on him via text throughout the evening to see if he'd followed up on
her request — and he hadn't. A year later, however, Birkhead was acting a bit more social,
taking Dannielynn to the occasional movie premiere. At one event, she saw Britney Spears.
Birkhead joked,
"She fell over backwards because she thought that [Britney] was going to be her mom."
Some of Dannielynn's other potential romantic picks for her dad? Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande.
Anna Nicole Smith's life was cut tragically short — she would have celebrated her 50th
birthday in November 2017. To commemorate the occasion, Birkhead took Dannielynn to
the Bahamas, where Smith gave birth to her in 2006. He told Us Weekly,
"The trip back for Dannielynn is kind of special because she doesn't really know a whole lot
about the place where she was born. When Dannielynn was little and I used to bring her here, the
people used to come out screaming, 'The people's princess Dannielynn is here,' cause it was
such a big deal about her birth here, and they embrace her and they come up and ask
for pictures and stuff all the time."
Birkhead also showed his daughter the courthouse where he had fought for sole custody of her
shortly after her birth.
For similar purposes, the Birkheads ventured to Smith's Texas hometown in 2021 for a 20/20
segment commemorating the 14th anniversary of her passing. He said,
"I have to paint a picture for Dannielynn of who her mom was."
"I tell Dannielynn stories about her mom. I don't sugar coat it. I say there are some
things that your mom did and you know I try to make her learn from things."
Many members of Birkhead's family live near him in Kentucky, but he's reportedly somewhat
distant from the other side of daughter Dannielynn's family. In 2017, Virgie Arthur, Anna's mother
and Dannielynn's grandmother, claimed to have not seen her Kentucky-based kin since 2010.
She told the Daily Mail,
"I wanna be part of Dannielynn's life. It's not fair to her, not to know her mother's
side of the family, it's not fair."
Birkhead countered Arthur's claims, calling it all a bunch of lies. In 2017, he told Inside
Edition,
"Anna's mom has seen Dannielynn, and she's seen her a few times. I say that only because
I want the story to stop."
Unfortunately, Dannielynn's grandmother and Birkhead didn't seem to ever resolve their
dispute. According to the Daily Mail, Smith's last surviving parent passed away from the
effects of cancer in November 2018.
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