Tragic Details About Anna Nicole Smith's Daughter Dannielynn Birkhead

Anna Nicole Smith's daughter, Dannielynn Birkhead, lives a private life that resembles nothing of her mother's. Many might be surprised at how ordinary Dannielynn's life turned out to be, given the tragedies that marked her first year of life. Dannielynn lost her mother amid tragic circumstances when she was months old, which wasn't the first loss she had experienced. At just days old, she also lost her 20-year-old half-brother, Daniel Smith, whom Anna Nicole welcomed with her first husband, Billy.

As if that wasn't enough, those months were also marked by the uncertainty over who her father was. The wild paternity scandal over Anna Nicole's daughter was highly publicized, throwing the motherless baby into an unwelcome spotlight. Dannielynn's life became a lot more normal after Larry Birkhead was declared the father, and the pair stepped away from the limelight. Dannielynn grew up attending public school with mundane hobbies. "She's just a regular kid. She's into technology now and she's into games and these YouTube videos," Larry told Today in 2016.

Dannielynn, who turned 18 in September 2024, is set to start college, where she plans to double major in forensic science and Japanese studies. It wasn't always easy. Growing up without a mother took a toll on her and her father. Besides, she had to do a lot of growing up early on to come to grips with Anna Nicole's complicated past. But all in all, Dannielynn's childhood and adolescence had a happy ending after a tragic start. 

Anna Nicole Smith died on February 8, 2007, exactly five months and a day after she welcomed Dannielynn the previous September. Losing a mother as a baby is always tragic, but Dannielynn's situation threw her into the eye of a hurricane. Not only did she find herself without a mother, but also without a known father. While Smith had listed her then-partner and lawyer, Howard K. Stern, as Dannielynn's father on her birth certificate, the document was later deemed invalid because Stern didn't sign it himself.

This opened the door for Larry Birkhead to sue over Dannielynn's paternity — and others followed in his footsteps. Soon enough, five men were potential biological fathers. Because Smith died a few weeks before court proceedings started, she would never learn the fate of her baby daughter. In the months between Smith's death and the DNA test results that determined Birkhead was the father in April 2007, Dannielynn lived with Stern, the only father she knew up until then.

"My feelings for Dannielynn have not changed," Stern said, according to CNN. But he wanted what was best for Dannielynn, so he joined forces with Birkhead to ensure the transition would be as smooth as possible. "The minute after the paternity test was over ... he's helping me change Dannielynn's diaper, [showing me], 'This is how you feed her,' ... it's been nonstop since then," Birkhead told ABC News of Stern's support in 2017.

Dannielynn Birkhead didn't just lose her mother when she was an infant. At just 3 days old, she also lost her brother, 20-year-old Daniel Smith. Anna Nicole Smith's son died from a prescription drug overdose in the hospital room next to his mother and newborn sister. "You've got to think: My daughter was born on Sept. 7 and on Sept. 10, Daniel died," Larry Birkhead said on "The Wendy Williams Show" in 2017 (via People). "So you go from that extreme high and low, and how do you process that in your mind?"

Birkhead wasn't the only one to think Daniel's death irreparably broke Anna Nicole. "Anna and Daniel were inseparable. Daniel was without question the most important person in Anna's life," Howard K. Stern said in court (via CBS News). Birkhead went so far as to argue the loss of Daniel was the real cause of Anna Nicole's untimely death. "Although her death certificate will list a different cause — an accidental overdose — in my mind, I think she truly died of a broken heart," he said.

Anna Nicole tried to keep going for Dannielynn, a baby she had wanted for a long time. "Anna always wanted a little girl, that was her dream," Birkhead told ABC News in 2017. She had been collecting girl clothes since the '90s. "[She] hope[d] that one day that she could dress her in all these frilly outfits," he said.

Dannielynn was 14 when she began delving into Anna Nicole Smith's past. Before then, Larry Birkhead believed she was too young to understand their complex life circumstances. "The way I've told Dannielynn in the past is that, 'Your mom took some medicines and she ... might not [have] taken them correctly or the right way, and the doctors couldn't help her, and they tried,'" he said in the ABC News interview about Smith's death.

But in 2020, father and daughter took a trip to Smith's hometown of Mexia, Texas, which was featured on the "20/20" special "Tragic Beauty: Anna Nicole Smith" in 2021. Their journey offered Dannielynn a chance to learn about her mother's and, in a way, her own roots. With Dannielynn entering adolescence, Larry thought she deserved to learn about her mom's past from the source. "I thought, why not go back, and to Anna's beginnings and kind of see where Anna got her start," Larry said. 

Larry believed it wouldn't be fair for Dannielynn — or Smith — if she didn't. "I have a daughter who doesn't have a mom," he said. "And I have to paint a picture for Dannielynn of who her mom was." He had always made it a point to keep Smith's memory alive for his daughter. His efforts seem to have worked. "We talk about her a lot at home, and share stories and funny things," she said in the May 2024 E! News interview. 

Having lost her mother when she was just 5 months old, Dannielynn Birkhead has no memories of her. With that in mind, Larry Birkhead collected early mementos and other possessions belonging to Anna Nicole Smith to pass down to Dannielynn in the future. That time came in 2021 when father and daughter were featured on the "20/20" special "Tragic Beauty: Anna Nicole Smith."

Larry kept his collection in a storage unit before laying out the belongings in the living room for Dannielynn to go through. He hung Smith's artwork on the walls and displayed some of her iconic outfits on hangers. "This is stuff that I've had for you for a long time. Do you want to see it?" he asked Dannielynn. The then-teenager smiled brightly at the prospect. Father and daughter began the walk down memory lane by going through photo albums.

Larry showed Dannielynn snippets of Smith doting over her baby girl. "When you talk about Anna Nicole, there were a lot of happy moments for her," he said. "There was a lot of highs before there was a lot of lows." Smith's belongings became permanent fixtures in the Birkhead household. The items also helped Dannielynn feel more connected to the mother she never got to know. "And we have some things around the house that belong to her, like painting with some very choice words written on the back," she told E! News in May 2024.

Larry Birkhead raised Dannielynn Birkhead by himself. He never married or had any other children, focusing on giving his daughter what her mother never had. Early on, he packed up his and Dannielynn's belongings and returned to his native Kentucky to give her normalcy and stability. "It's just like any other kid who has lost a celebrity parent. They think that the child is automatically destined for the same path," he said in his interview with ABC News.

Larry was determined to ensure that Dannielynn's future looked different. But it wasn't easy. As a single father to a daughter, Larry often found himself out of his depth. "It's tough raising a little girl without a mom," he said on "Steve" in 2016. The situation was just as hard on Dannielynn, who struggled to come to terms with her reality. "There were days on the playground where she would say she wants her mom back," he said. 

Fighting back tears, Larry explained she had a hard time visiting Smith's grave. "It makes me emotional when I think about just everything we've been through," he said. But he made it work. Since Anna Nicole Smith posthumously lost her fight over J. Howard Marshall's fortune, Dannielynn inherited almost nothing. Instead, she was raised on what her father earned as a photographer and house flipper. That turned out to be a blessing in disguise. "She's very grounded and very humble," he told the Daily Mail in 2023.