{"id":267064,"date":"2019-02-08T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-02-08T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/music-news\/rollercoasters-snapchat-and-conversations-about-anna-nicoie-smith-inside-dannielynn-birkheads-surprisingly-normal-world\/"},"modified":"2019-02-08T07:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-02-08T14:00:00","slug":"rollercoasters-snapchat-and-conversations-about-anna-nicoie-smith-inside-dannielynn-birkheads-surprisingly-normal-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/music-news\/rollercoasters-snapchat-and-conversations-about-anna-nicoie-smith-inside-dannielynn-birkheads-surprisingly-normal-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Rollercoasters, Snapchat and Conversations About Anna NicoIe Smith: Inside Dannielynn Birkhead’s Surprisingly Normal World"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Perhaps it’s fitting how much Dannielynn Birkhead<\/strong> loves rollercoasters\u00a0when you consider the\u00a0tedious\u00a0climbs\u00a0and\u00a0sharp\u00a0descents that marked her first year of life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There was the untimely passing of half-brother\u00a0Daniel Smith<\/strong>, who overdosed while visiting mom Anna Nicole Smith<\/a><\/strong> and her newborn daughter in a Bahamian hospital, and the eerily similar death of the larger-than-life former Playboy<\/em> model just months later. And, of course, the custody circus that ensued with freelance photographer Larry Birkhead<\/strong>, Smith’s attorney Howard K. Stern<\/a><\/strong> and even Zsa Zsa Gabor<\/a><\/strong>‘s husband Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Prinz von Anhalt<\/strong> staking their claim for the 5-month-old. The weeks-long\u00a0spectacle\u00a0finally ended in April 2007 with Larry, paternity\u00a0results in hand, stepping outside the Nassau courthouse to tell the reporters, photographers and curious locals that gathered,\u00a0“I hate to be the one to say this but…I told you so.”<\/p>\n

So the fact that Larry now describes his little girls as fearless, the type of person who embraces all the twists, turns and heart-dropping falls that come her way? Yeah, that checks out.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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Of course, these days, Larry works hard to ensure Dannielynn’s rollercoaster rides are of the literal variety. Despite the stranger-than-fiction events surrounding\u00a0her birth and first few months, the middle schooler leads a life that’s, by all accounts, fairly standard for any 12-year-old. At their 10,000-square-foot\u00a0Kentucky home, she has a pet lizard, practices the violin, makes homemade slime and argues with Dad about how much time she spends on her cell phone. (She’s obsessed with Snapchat, obvs.) But the two are still tight enough to plan joint Halloween costumes (this past year they chose an Exorcist theme<\/a>), enjoy family trips to Dollywood<\/a> and discuss the legacy left behind by Smith, who passed away at Florida’s\u00a0Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino 12 years ago today.<\/p>\n

Having done away with their previous tradition of visiting Smith’s final resting place in the Bahamas (“People would always try to catch us at the grave,” Larry explains to E! News), they now opt for a more low-key practice. “I never want it to be a real heavy day,” he says, “so we might get a cake and tell stories. But in our house, every day is Anna day. We talk about her and remember her all the time.”\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Dannielynn<\/p>\n

Gustavo Caballero\/Getty Images for Churchill Down<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Like most parents, especially single ones, the University of Louisville alum, 46, says his days are filled vacillating between various roles. “Sometimes you feel like a bodyguard, sometimes you feel like a chauffeur,” he joked to Us Weekly<\/em><\/a> last year. “It depends on what the day is. But my job is dad and I think I’ve done a pretty good job. She’s adjusted to it and she’s just a normal kid.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thrust into fatherhood with one DNA test, Larry made some snap decisions to give his daughter a life befitting your standard kid rather than the fishbowl-like existence some celebrity offspring are subjected to. His first move was to his hometown of Louisville, some 2,000 miles removed from Hollywood’s glare. “It takes away the chase,” he told\u00a0the Today Show<\/em><\/a> in 2016 of life in the midwest, “it takes away the curiosity, it takes away the false stories.”<\/p>\n

In Kentucky, “life has been really great and quiet by design,” he tells E! News. “It’s given Dannielynn a great foundation, too. She is concentrating on school and has even made the Honor Roll!”\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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His next play: making nice with former foe Stern. As Larry tells it, the dueling dads quickly realized it was time to behave as the grown-ups in the situation and Smith’s former lawyer and lover swiftly dropped any\u00a0custodial claims. “He just said, ‘Look, you’ve got to get strong. You’ve got to be there for Dannielynn,'” Larry recalled in an interview with ABC News’ 20\/20<\/em><\/a> last year. “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.”<\/p>\n

The pair have actually maintained their relationship, a once tentative friendship transitioning into a real bond. “We work together on stuff all the time,” Larry tells E! News. “He gives advice and reaches out to us. Some people may think it’s weird, but he’s a good friend and has been real supportive.”\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Dannielynn<\/p>\n

Elliston Lutz\/Paul Marciano\/Guess<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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As for Larry, his paternal instincts kicked in pretty quickly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I just started trying to fly on my own and say, ‘You got to make decisions here,'” he told ET<\/em>. “Although you might hear the voice in your head…just do the best you can, and I think that has been a pretty good formula.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

So he listens\u00a0to his gut. Like the time Guess approached asking if the 6-year-old would like to pose for the brand that made her mom a household name. Defending himself from critics who\u00a0were quick to cry exploitation, Larry\u00a0explained the stint was more about connecting with the mother she never knew than testing out future career opportunities. “Dannielynn has always looked up to her mom’s image and…I think that this is kind of Dannielynn’s way of paying tribute to her mom in her own special way,” he\u00a0said on\u00a0Good Morning America<\/em> in 2012.\u00a0“To see her mom’s picture next to hers as a Guess girl and say, ‘Hey, I was a Guess Kids girl, my mommy was a Guess girl,’ that might be her only connection with her mom.”<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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And to this day, it remains a one-off gig. “I’ve had companies call me since then and ask me for her to model,” he’s shared, “and the answer is no. She doesn’t show any interest in it. She wants to be a kid.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of course, there are moments when it’s clear she’s not your average tween, like when she spots herself on the cover of a tabloid in the supermarket checkout line or asks just one more time, “Daaaaadddd, why<\/em> can’t I have a YouTube channel?”\u00a0While the other kids in her class\u00a0can simply goof around on the video-sharing site or\u00a0fantasize about the type of clip that might help them\u00a0go viral, Larry has to remind his daughter that anything she posted would get massive traction. “I still have to warn her that, you know, your friend might have a YouTube account, but if you have a YouTube account that’s different,” he told Us Weekly<\/em>, “because people know who you are.”<\/p>\n

Instead, she frequents the site for makeup tutorials and dreams of one day starting her own cosmetics or clothing line.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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But\u00a0much like any protective father worried about\u00a0the unknowns his daughter could encounter on the web,\u00a0Larry limits her access to the Internet, posts liberally to their shared Instagram account and\u00a0avoids most public appearances, save for their annual pilgrimage<\/a> to the Kentucky Derby. The main event, and the night before Barnstable Brown Party are traditions, both because it’s\u00a0the same bash<\/a> where Larry first connected with Smith and, well, because it’s close to home and a lot of fun. “She’s my good luck charm,” he told E! News<\/a> at the 2015 event. “She picks all the winners.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

If Dannielynn had her way, Dad would find a winner of his own.\u00a0One of her favorite activities involves floating prospective dates for Dad. “Dannielynn tries to hook me up,”\u00a0he told E! News<\/a>\u00a0back in 2013.\u00a0“She is a matchmaker.” A very determined one. Asked by\u00a0ET<\/em><\/a>\u00a0to reenact the prods she gives him, she said, “You, mister, will go on a date or I’ll have to force you.”<\/p>\n

It’s not just that she wants to see her father happy and in love more than a decade after his two-year\u00a0on-off dalliance with Smith ended, though she does. The way Larry sees it, she’s\u00a0simply craving another female figure in her life.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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“She is clinging to the female teachers,” he shared with ET<\/em>. “She’s clingy to her girlfriends’ moms and she’ll say things like, ‘Do you want to adopt me? Would you be my honorary mother?’ She tends to do that a lot.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Given the opportunity, she would make that same plea to a few Hollywood types, citing the likes of Nicki Minaj<\/a><\/strong>, Britney Spears<\/a><\/strong> and Ariana Grande<\/a><\/strong> as her top choices. Because\u00a0what tween wouldn’t want a pop star as a step-mom?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Or, absent that, just one with access to a steady stream of sugar?\u00a0<\/p>\n

“She told me today, ‘I think you need to go out with Kylie Jenner<\/a><\/strong>,'”\u00a0Larry relayed to ET<\/em><\/a> last year. “I said, ‘Well, she’s a little young,’ and she said, ‘OK, what about Kim? I said, ‘Well, she’s married,’ and she goes, ‘OK, what about the mom, Kris? I [asked why she’d] say that and she goes, ‘I remember she had a frozen yogurt machine in her house.'”\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Kentucky<\/p>\n

Michael Loccisano\/Getty Images for Churchill Downs<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Though her step-mom wish list isn’t limited to bold faced names and multi-millionaires. After all, Dannielynn still holds out\u00a0a shred of hope that the Internet chatter is right and that she’s secretly ultra-wealthy.\u00a0“We saw a video on YouTube that she was one of the 10 richest kids in America,” he revealed to Inside Edition<\/em><\/a>. “Then she wanted to go to the mall. And I’m like, ‘No, it’s not that. Trust me, it’s not that.”\u00a0While the duo “do okay,” as Larry says, it’s been four years since\u00a0Smith’s lawyers lost their final request<\/a> to obtain money from the estate of her former billionaire oil tycoon husband\u00a0J. Howard Marshall.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So the designer garb will have to wait. Which is fine, because\u00a0more than anything Dannielynn just wants a mother figure to browse the racks with. “We went to a swim party and it was a bunch of moms and I felt out of place, sitting there going, ‘I can do this,’ [while] they’re all gossiping,” Larry recalled to ET<\/em>. “Then Dannielynn comes over, takes my foot and slides it next to the mother’s foot next to me. She says, ‘Y’all need to get to know each other.’ It’s cute when she tries to push me out of the house and get me to date and do things.”\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Dannielynn<\/p>\n

Mike Coppola\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He’s not uninterested<\/em> in finding love.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been on a few dates,” he insists to E! News, “but I’m not on dating sites or anything like that!” Though the photographer and house flipper willingly signed on for a stint on The Millionaire Matchmaker<\/em> back in 2014. It’s just hard to date as a single parent. Tougher still when prospective girlfriends know every last detail about your ex. “I’ve been on a few dates and the thing is that, early on, it’s too much commotion [with girls] thinking [I was] looking for [another] Anna Nicole,” he told ET<\/em>. “I had one girl come and try to try on Anna Nicole’s jewelry; I had one girl show up and try to look like Anna Nicole. And, they just want to talk about the whole situation.”<\/p>\n

And that’s\u00a0a conversation he’d prefer to leave between him and his little girl.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They’ve certainly had some awkward ones, like the time Dannielynn asked why her Wikipedia page says her surname was Stern when she was a baby. (Discussing the facts and fiction on one’s Wikipedia page\u2014just your average father-daughter stuff.)\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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But mostly Larry likes to keep his explanations of Smith and her passing as light as possible.\u00a0“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 explained<\/a>\u00a0to 20\/20<\/em>.<\/p>\n

As for anything she might discover on her own, “I have a block on her [computer],” he told<\/a>\u00a0Wendy Williams<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0in 2017. “We sit down and I have a talk with her and I say, ‘You’re going to see these things about your mom and not everything is true.” He sees each chat as a learning opportunity: “I take a little bit of Anna’s life and I put it into lessons.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

It’s undeniable that the\u00a0pre-teen misses the mom she never knew, that she craves a fuller house\u00a0so much that\u00a0she once handed Larry a stack of adoption brochures and told him, “Just surprise me when you get home. Bring the best one home.” But she also seems to have\u00a0accepted the idea that she has a different type of relationship with her mom.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Dannielynn<\/p>\n

Alberto E. Rodriguez\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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She sees her in the Smith-crafted portrait that hangs in her Peter Pan-themed bedroom, in the butterflies that\u00a0chase her around (a family friend having once told her any she spots were sent down by her mother) and sometimes she quite literally sees her on camera. Watching Smith’s “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” music video<\/a>, reveals Larry, “She’ll shout to the TV, ‘Slay, Queen, slay!'”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dannielynn, says Dad, now envisions her mother as a guardian angel watching over not only her, but anyone and anything that may cross her path.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The other day, she had a friend whose fish died and she said, ‘Don’t worry about your fish, it’s up there with my mom. My mom’s taking care of your fish and it’s gonna be OK,'” he shared with ET<\/em><\/a>. “It was something that she came up with. It was true from the heart and that’s how she deals with it and I’m proud that she is who she is.”<\/p>\n

And if he’s being really honest, and a little less humble, he’s pretty proud of the job he’s doing as Dad.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0“I think [about] how far she’s come, and all the craziness that swirled around her and that she was just, really none the wiser. Just a little kid doing her thing like she’s supposed to be,” Larry told ET<\/em><\/a> in 2015. “That’s the one thing that I’m most proud of that I’ve done\u2014trying to keep everything as normal as I can, in just a really crazy, crazy situation.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her backstory is a lot for anyone to handle, much less a 12-year-old who has to worry about things like passing math, navigating the middle school social scene and\u00a0whether or not boys are gross. So outside of a\u00a0sojourn they made to the Bahamas\u00a0in late 2017 to mark what would have been Smith’s\u00a050th birthday, Larry works to keep the focus on homework, video games and Girl Scout meetings.<\/p>\n

“She’s a good kid,” he says, “and we laugh and have the best times and she wears me out.”<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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Because, much like Mom, she sprints toward life with no fears, ready to roll with the ups, the downs and the loop-the-loops. “I’m going on amusement park roller coasters doing 200-foot drops holding on to her and she says, ‘I told you the last time, do not hold on to me!'” he marvels. “Sometimes you just have to say, ‘I gotta let you go and become your own person.’ You can only do so much. Sometimes I’m amazed by the way she handles things.”<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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For more on Larry and Dannielynn’s Kentucky life, tune into E! News<\/em> tonight at 7 p.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

via:: E! Online<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Perhaps it’s fitting how much Dannielynn Birkhead loves rollercoasters\u00a0when you consider the\u00a0tedious\u00a0climbs\u00a0and\u00a0sharp\u00a0descents that marked her first year of life.\u00a0 There was the untimely passing of half-brother\u00a0Daniel Smith, who overdosed while visiting mom Anna Nicole Smith and her newborn daughter in a Bahamian hospital, and the eerily similar death of the larger-than-life former Playboy model just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-267064","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-17 12:21:26","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KIDN - The Lift FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267064\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}