Dannielynn Birkhead celebrated her 16th birthday on Sept. 7, 2022
No Kentucky Derby is complete without Dannielynn Birkhead, 16, and her father, photographer Larry Birkhead, smiling in their race day finery. The two attend the event every year, travel the world together and share their adventures on their Instagram account.
Dannielynn's supermodel mother, Anna Nicole Smith, died from an accidental drug overdose in 2007, just five months after Dannielynn was born in September 2006. At the time of Dannielynn's birth, Smith claimed that Dannielynn's father was Howard K. Stern, the Playboy model's attorney and romantic partner. However, a court battle to establish paternity determined that Birkhead was Dannielynn's biological father in 2007. Birkhead was then awarded custody of his daughter.
Ever since, the father-daughter duo has traveled everywhere from Dollywood to Hawaii together with, of course, stops in Louisville, Kentucky, for the famous horse race.
But who is Dannielynn Birkhead? Read on to learn about Anna Nicole Smith and Larry Birkhead's daughter and how she's staying connected to her mother's legacy.
Dannielynn was born Sept. 7, 2006, in Nassau, Bahamas, as Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern. Smith initially said that Stern was the father of her daughter, but Birkhead contested that claim and demanded a DNA test.
Smith passed away on Feb. 8, 2007, of an accidental drug overdose at age 39. In April 2007, a DNA test confirmed that Birkhead was Dannielynn's biological father. "I'm the father," he said. "Thank you for your support. Thank you for the people who got me this far. Thank you very much. My baby's gonna be coming home pretty soon. Things are moving quickly here, and we'll see what happens."
When the results came in, Stern was cooperative, hugging Birkhead outside the courthouse. "We're gonna do what we can to make sure that the best interests of Dannielynn are carried out," Stern said. "And I'm going to do whatever I can to make sure that he gets sole custody. Larry can come over to the house and spend as much time with [Dannielynn] as he wants to right now."
Prior to welcoming Dannielynn, Smith had one son named Daniel Wayne Smith. Three days after Dannielynn was born, 20-year-old Daniel died in Smith's hospital room of an accidental drug overdose. He had arrived that same day to visit his mother and meet his newborn sister.