Trying to find the right words to make a child understand why his mother died is no easy task. It’s ever more challenging when the child is 5-year-old Dannielynn and the mother is Anna Nicole Smith. According to Larry Birkhead, his daughter asked him why Ann Nicole Smith died.
Despite her controversial life, Anna Nicole Smith was loved in the United States, and it wasn’t only because of her apparitions in Playboy. The model’s death was sudden and some might argue not exactly surprising. Anna Nicole Smith died just months after Dannielynn was born, after she accidentally took a drug overdose.
During an interview with “Good Morning America”, Larry Birkhead, Dannielynn’s father and Anna Nicole Smith’s partner, talked about his life. He even told the host about the time he took Dannielynn to Bahamas, where the Playboy model and her son, Daniel Smith were buried. According to Birkhead, the five-year-old asked why her mommy died. “And I said, ‘You know, they, doctors couldn’t fix her. But if you’re good…you’ll get to see her someday”.
He said he wasn’t worried about Dannielynn’s reaction when she’ll learn how her mother died. “I hope that she understands that no one’s perfect and people have triumphs and people have tragedies” he said. “And her mom really…soldiered on and she came from nothing and she, you know, lived her dream”.
Birkhead added it’s been difficult to adjust to all the paparazzi focus which didn’t make his job easier. Raising a child as a single father, he said, is so much harder than what he originally imagined, but he enjoys it every day. “You wish you had a couple more hours in each day” to enjoy the adventure, says Birkhead.
However, Larry Birkhead did confess it’s a bit scary to know his five-year-old child is so popular. “There’s all these big stars that came and the next thing you know Dannielynn’s picture is all over the place” he said of the time they went to the Kentucky Derby.
“I want to keep Anna’s image alive in a positive way. She could light up a room. And now her daughter’s taken her place and she’s lighting up every room that she goes into”, confessed Birkhead.
