Almost ten years after Anna Nicole Smith died of a drug overdose, Larry Birkhead is opening up about raising their daughter alone.
Birkhead reveals how he is determined to keep the troubled model’s memory alive, as he raises their 10-year-old daughter Dannielynn.
In an interview with the Today show on Monday Birkhead admitted: “I’m not the best dad.
‘I have my faults, but I do the best I can with what the situation is.’
The 43-year-old discussed life as a single parent, just days after the pretty youngster celebrated her tenth birthday.
‘We make the best of it and I think Dannielynn’s best days are still to come,‘ he said.
‘She’s got such a bright future in front of her and I try every day to keep a little bit of the memory alive of her mom.’
While her gorgeous mom lived her life in the glare of the spotlight, Larry has pledged to raise their little girl well away from it.
They live in Kentucky and Larry wants nothing more than to give Dannielynn as normal a childhood as possible.
‘People call me all the time and say, “Can she be in a movie, can she model?” I didn’t care about it, so I’d say, “No, she’s not interested,”‘ he explained.
‘She’s just a regular kid. She’s into technology now and she’s into games and these YouTube videos.’
He goes on: ‘I made a conscious decision a long time ago to move to Kentucky.
‘I do that on purpose because it takes away the chase, it takes away the curiosity, it takes away the false stories.’
And as for what Anna Nicole would think of if she saw his parenting technique, he revealed with a smile: ‘Other than that I don’t dress her in pink every day, I think she’d would probably think I’m doing a pretty good job.’
Photographer Larry first met Anna Nicole at a Kentucky Derby party in May 2004, but the pair broke up before their little girl was born.
The youngster was just five months old when Anna Nicole died aged 39 of an accidental drug overdose in 2007.
After Anna Nicole gave birth on September 7, 2006, her son Daniel died of accidental drug overdose three days later while visiting in her hospital room.
He was aged 20.
Larry won paternity of a Dannielynn when she was just a baby, after Anna Nicole died in February 2007.
Anna Nicole rose to fame after she married eighty-nine-year-old oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall when she was just 26.
The pair met in a strip club. He died 13 months later and the model and his family were locked in a legal battle over his will.
The star would go on to become a Playmate and a pop culture icon but struggled legally, financially and with drug dependency.