BAHAMAS:A former boyfriend, Larry Birkhead, was yesterday identified as the father of Playboy playmate Anna Nicole Smith's seven-month-old daughter, Dannielynn, after DNA test results were released by a Bahamas court.
The revelation brought to an appropriately dramatic climax a tabloid maelstrom that was kicked off by Ms Smith's abrupt death in a Florida hotel casino on February 8th of an accidental drug overdose.
Dannielynn could one day be worth a fortune if Ms Smith's estate wins a decade-long battle to inherit from former oil tycoon husband J Howard Marshall.
"I hate to be the one to tell you this but, I told you so," Mr Birkhead, a Los Angeles photographer, told reporters and sightseers outside the court in Nassau. "Nothing's really determined except parentage and I'm the father. I'm going to the toy store," he said.
Ms Smith's death touched off a battle among her mother, Virgie Arthur, long-time companion Howard K Stern and Mr Birkhead, not only for her body, but also over custody of her baby.
Mr Stern, who is listed on the baby's Bahamian birth certificate as the father, said he was disappointed when US DNA expert Michael Baird told Bahamas supreme court justice Stephen Isaacs that Dannielynn's DNA was a more than 99.9 per cent match with Mr Birkhead's.
"I'm going to do everything I can to make sure he [ Mr Birkhead] gets sole custody," Mr Stern said. "This whole process, everything, has been very difficult." Mr Stern has vowed to ensure that Ms Smith's estranged mother, does not gain custody of Dannielynn. - (Reuters)