Larry Birkhead is remembering Anna Nicole Smith on what would have been her 55th birthday.
The Playboy Playmate, GUESS girl and actress-turned-reality TV star passed away in 2007 at age 39. Nov. 28 is her birthday.
The photographer, who is the father of their 16-year-old daughter Dannielynn Birkhead, took to Instagram on Monday and reposted a photo of the late star shared by her estate. In the pic, Smith is striking a pose next to balloons while holding her dog.
“Happy Birthday Anna Nicole,” wrote the 49-year-old. “We miss you and love you.”
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Smith died of an accidental overdose of prescription medication five months after giving birth to her daughter. Previously, Smith’s son Daniel died of an accidental overdose in her Bahamas hospital room just three days after his sister was born. He was 20. Birkhead has always maintained that Smith died of a broken heart.
Anna Nicole Smith’s son Daniel passed away in 2006 at age 20 from an accidental overdose.
(Photo by Gregg DeGuire/WireImage)
Birkhead has raised their daughter out of the Hollywood spotlight. Instead, they call Kentucky home. In May of this year, Birkhead told Fox News Digital that his daughter gets offers for movies and television roles “all the time,” but is simply “not interested in” living a life in front of a camera — at least not yet.
“If it’s something that does interest her one day and something that she wants to do, that’s fine,” he said. “But right at this point, right now, you know, she is a 10th grader. She’s making really good grades. She’s in school, and her focus is kind of that — being a normal kid. And that’s kind of OK.”
Birkhead added: “She’s having a good time. She’s happy, and that’s really kind of what it’s about, really to me.”
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Dannielynn Birkhead and Larry Birkhead attend the 148th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 07, 2022 in Louisville, Kentucky.
(Photo by Stephen J. Cohen/Getty Images)
Birkhead first met Smith briefly in 2003 during the Kentucky Derby in his home state. However, it wasn’t until 2004 that the pair bonded in private.
“I couldn’t tell anybody that we were dating,” Birkhead told Fox News Digital in 2020. “To the world, it was a mystery… I couldn’t talk about our relationship, and there [weren’t] a lot of pictures of us and footage of us as a couple. She was supposed to be this kind of available sex goddess. That was her persona that she was supposed to be available and the object of everyone’s desire. It worked against me in so many ways.”
Anna Nicole Smith and Larry Birkhead during the 2005 MTV Australia Video Music Awards. Birkhead said their relationship had to be kept a secret.
(Photo by John Allman/WireImage)
Birkhead said that during their whirlwind relationship, the notoriously public star spoke candidly about her upbringing in Mexia, Texas.
“I don’t think she had great family support and great guidance,” he shared. “She dropped out of school early. She didn’t have a good family unit… I think she was lacking in the foundation that it took to maneuver through life and handle some of the stress and things that she went through as a celebrity. It didn’t really prepare her for that.”
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Anna Nicole Smith in publicity portrait for the film ‘Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult’, 1994.
(Photo by Paramount/Getty Images)
“I think Anna could have benefited more from having people who were genuine and that could give her better guidance and advice,” he continued. “But at the same time, she accomplished a lot in her short time, and she was a great mom to her son. She could have been a great mom to our daughter. That is unfortunate. I think there are a lot of lessons to be learned in Anna’s story.”
Birkhead noted that he’s content as a single parent.
“I’m proud of my daughter because without her mom she’s [still] such a great kid, and she does her best every day,” said Birkhead. “She makes me laugh and smile, and I embarrass her every day like most dads do. She does not like the dad jokes and there are certain rules we have where I’m banned from social media, and I’m not supposed to say things, and I’m not supposed to post things. It’s not cool to walk with her to school anymore, show up at the school dance and… doing a dance that I think might be cool. But she’s funny, and I’m proud of her. She’s a great kid.”
