Anna Nicole's aunt battles for custody of Dannielynn, the star's £240m baby
Anna Nicole's aunt battles for custody of Dannielynn, the star's £240m baby | the Daily Mail
Anna Nicole's aunt battles three 'fathers' for custody of Dannielynn, the star's £240m baby. As daughter of tragic model is handed over to her lover's family, another relative joins the scramble for her millions
Anna Nicole Smith's five-month-old daughter has been handed over to the family of one of the three men involved in a potential £240million paternity suit.
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Lawyer Howard K Stern, with whom Anna Nicole set up home in the Bahamas last year, has not proved that he is Dannielynn's father - but it was ruled that the baby should nevertheless be handed over to Stern's mother.
It is the latest twist in the tangled saga of infighting since the model died on Thursday.
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And Anna Nicole's mother Virgie and aunt Elaine have now joined the clamour of relatives wanting to look after the baby who stands to inherit a sizeable share of the £900million estate left by Anna Nicole's late husband, J Howard Marshall, the oil tycoon who was 64 years her senior.
Elaine exclusively told The Mail on Sunday of the family's heartache at losing Anna Nicole just months after the model's 20-year-old son Daniel died from a suspected accidental overdose - and of how Anna Nicole's own life has been blighted by drugs.
Elaine, who has flown to the Bahamas with Virgie, 55, said: "She is concerned something could happen to the baby. She's lost a grandson, lost a daughter and wants to know her granddaughter is safe. We're just praying we get her back. But if you don't have money or connections, you don't get anywhere here."
Until last night, Dannielynn had been in the care of Bahamian Immigration Minister, Shane Gibson, a close friend of Anna Nicole's since she moved to the island last summer.
Last night a source said: "In the Bahamas, the only person legally entitled to a child is the mother and this mother is dead.
"So it's now a question of determining who was caring for the child was at the time of the death, and Mr Stern's family are the closest."
As well as Mr Stern, both Anna Nicole's former lover, the photographer Larry Birkhead, and Zsa Zsa Gabor's ninth husband, Prince Frederick Von Anhalt, are also claiming to be Dannielynn's father.
Anna Nicole's body will not be buried for at least ten days so a DNA sample can be taken and a paternity case heard.
A post-mortem found no drugs in the 39-year-old's stomach, but investigators have not ruled out an overdose and are awaiting the results of a chemical analysis which could take five weeks.
A large number of prescription pills, including Valium and painkillers, were reportedly found in the room at Florida's Seminole Hard Rock Hotel where Anna Nicole collapsed.
The model had been fighting a legal battle over Marshall's oil fortune since he died in 1995, aged 90.
Sources say his estate had, within the last fortnight, offered a 'very generous multi-million dollar' settlement, which Anna Nicole is said to have turned down.
Soon after the legal fight started on Marshall's death, Anna Nicole fell out with her mother and aunt.
Elaine, 52, said: "We were not invited to Daniel's funeral. We kept thinking Anna Nicole must change her mind, that she must have a heart. But she didn't.
"We went to Daniel's grave in the Bahamas on his 21st birthday. Virgie kept saying, "I'm sorry I didn't do more to protect you." It was really hard for her.
"Just the week before we had seen Anna Nicole on TV, jumping into the ocean to celebrate her "wedding" to Howard - while Daniel was in the morgue. I thought, "Oh no the drugs have eaten her brains up."
"She once had everything going for her but by the time she marred J Howard Marshall in 1994 she was doing a lot of drugs - a lot of them were prescription drugs, which she was abusing with alcohol.
"She woke me at 3am one day saying she'd seen demons having orgies in the sky. She said, "Tell me you see them." But I wouldn't. She said, "You think I'm crazy," I replied, "No. I'm just not on the same drugs as you."'
"She also had a lot of relationships. She was bisexual, seeing males and females - but no one special, and when she got upset she'd cry that no one loved her."
But even though Anna Nicole's relationship with her mother collapsed, Elaine said: "Virgie still loved her daughter. No matter how mean and ugly she was, you never lose that."
And now she has up to 240 million reasons for wanting to remember that bond. As Elaine says: "Even though Anna's gone, Dannielynn - or whoever is her guardian - could inherit millions."