All these years later, it’s still shocking to remember the sudden death of Anna Nicole Smith in 2007. She had become a genuine pop culture icon and sex symbol, and it looked like she had a long life ahead of her. And she was likely hoping for her daughter, Dannielynn Birkhead, who had recently been born.
Sadly, that was never in the cards. After Anna Nicole Smith died, it led to an ugly custody battle and other legal drama. When all was said and done, Dannielynn ended up being raised by her biological father, but that hasn’t kept her life from having some of the same twists and turns that her mother’s did.
How did the drama surrounding Anna Nicole Smith’s daughter end up shaping the girl’s life, and what is she doing now? Keep reading to discover the answers!
The shocking death of Anna Nicole Smith
One of the reasons that Anna Nicole Smith’s death was so shocking is that she was only 39 years old at the time. However, given the fact that she died of a prescription drug overdose, there is a chance that the model was worried that her best days might be behind her.
The reason for that is that she shot to fame at a very young age. She was making ends meet as a stripper when she met the oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall. Professional doors began to open, and it wasn’t long before she was dazzling audiences on the cover of Playboy and becoming the new model for Guess jeans.
She married Marshall when she was only 26, but life’s stresses seemed to be catching up to her by the time she was 39. And her sudden death left her daughter, who was only five months old at the time, with some serious legal drama to deal with.
Legal drama from a young age
The first bit of legal drama that Smith’s daughter Dannielynn Birkhead was embroiled in meant solving a mystery. And that mystery was just who the hell her father really was!
Nobody thought the father could be J. Howard Marshall, who died shortly after marrying Anna Nicole Smith, though we’ll return to him in a bit. As for Smith, she knew the father was Larry Birkhead because they had been secretly dating and she texted him confirming his status as the daddy.
This is where things get weird, though: when Danneilynn was born, Smith insisted that the real father was her lawyer, Howard K. Stern, and she had his name placed on the birth certificate. Because of this, Larry had to come forward and provide sufficient proof that he was the father before being awarded custody.
