Everything to Know About Dannielynn Birkhead — Anna Nicole Smith and Larry Birkhead’s Daughter
Reality TV star Anna Nicole Smith’s 17-year-old daughter Dannielynn Birkhead has managed to live a relatively normal life with her dad Larry Birkhead.
With the exception of the Kentucky Derby family tradition, the majority of Dannielynn’s life has been off-camera. Anna lived for the camera and took Dannielynn everywhere before her untimely death in 2007. Anna’s death sparked a wild custody court case to prove who was Dannielynn’s father.
Anna Nicole said Dannielynn’s father was Howard K. Stern
Anna originally said that boyfriend Howard K. Stern was Dannielynn’s father when she was born on Sept. 7, 2006, in Nassau, Bahamas. In fact, Dannielynn’s original last name was Stern.
But after Anna died from an accidental overdose, Larry sought custody of 5-month-old Dannielynn. Howard and Larry entered a messy custody battle that played out in court, but also in the public eye. Ultimately, a DNA test proved that Larry was Dannielynn’s father. Howard did not fight Larry for custody and Larry brought Dannielynn back to his home in Kentucky.
Prior to her birth, Dannielynn had a brother, Anna’s 20-year-old son Daniel. While visiting Anna in the hospital after she gave birth to Dannielynn, Daniel died from an accidental overdose. Anna never seemed to recover from his death.
Dannielynn Birkhead grew up in Kentucky
Larry and Dannielynn led a relatively quiet life once they returned to Kentucky. When Dannielynn turned 10, Larry told the Today Show that he wanted to keep his daughter’s life as normal as possible.
“I made a conscious decision a long time ago to move to Kentucky,” he said. “I do that on purpose because it takes away the chase, it takes away the curiosity, it takes away the false stories.”
“People call me all the time and say can she be in a movie, can she model?” he added. “I didn’t care about it, so I’d say no she’s not interested. She’s just a regular kid. She’s into technology now and she’s into games and these YouTube videos.”
The Kentucky Derby is a celebration of Anna
Larry and Dannielynn have attended the Kentucky Derby for years in celebration of Anna. Anna and Larry first met at Churchill Downs and Larry has kept the tradition alive for his daughter.
“It’s her one day a year outing that we do publicly,” Larry explained to the Louisville Courier Journal. “I think you guys can take pictures and watch her grow from just this event.”
Larry and Dannielynn recently attended the 34th annual Barnstable Brown Kentucky Derby Eve Gala and Dannielynn rocked some of her mother’s couture.
Dannielynn Birkhead will be heading to college in the near future
Dannielynn will be checking out colleges in the very near future.
“It’s one of those things where she’s just now dipping her toe into getting stuff, and people are mailing her things. And every time I get something in the mail for college, I don’t know if I really want to give her this because she might take them up on this offer and go somewhere to college,” Larry told People.
“It’s one of those things that all parents go through,” he added. “They don’t want their kids to go off, but they know they have to.”
Larry also said Dannielynn has a knack for public speaking and debate. “She takes a forensic class in high school, and she enjoys it, so she’s starting to talk about that, which is great because I like to watch Dateline,” he said. “So we’re on the same page with that.”
Most of Anna’s wardrobe has been saved for Dannielynn
Anna helped make a name for brands like Guess and many of her iconic looks were saved for her daughter. “Everything that she has of her mom’s is all cataloged in storage with pictures of every event that she wore it to. So if she appreciates it one day, she can. If she wants to give it to her kids, she can,” Larry shared. “If she doesn’t like it, she can sell it, whatever she wants to do. But it’s there, and it’s for her whenever she wants.”
“And unfortunately, her mom was a hoarder of sorts, so she has stuff, and she was a variety of sizes, so she’s got every size covered that you can imagine,” he said. “So I said, ‘What you’re going to weigh, how tall you’re going to be, whatever, but you pretty much got it covered.'”
Dannielynn Birkhead is a ‘picky eater like her mom’
One big similarity Anna and Dannielynn share is their approach to food and eating.
“She’s a picky eater like her mom. Oh, my gosh!” Larry laughed. “She eats no meat at all. One time in her life, she’s eaten meat. She does not eat meat at all, but she’s not a gigantic vegetable fan, either.”
“It’s been a struggle ever since she was little. She’s a big pasta eater, loves pizza, and things, and we add vitamins and different things to get her well-rounded,” he said. “She gets a lot of sauce on her pizza. Her mom was a sauce, a condiment freak. She would just extra, extra, extra, extra everything and load it down. And that’s how Dannielynn is.”
Larry keeps his daughter safe on social media
Larry’s Instagram is pretty limited and he keeps Dannielynn off social media for the most part. “You have to watch out because you don’t know what’s going on in that, so you have to keep an eye on it,” he said.
“She doesn’t have her own account because I don’t let her have her own thing,” Larry continued. Adding, “She looks at TikTok under a fake account. She doesn’t have her name out there and her picture. She’s not allowed to do that.”
“But, she’s on there looking at stuff, and she’s a big YouTube video person, and she’s into all that stuff. She likes virtual reality games where they go in and they can go into a world. She creates different characters. I walked in the other day, and she’s like some walking cat.”
