Anna Nicole's baby daddy? It's up for debate

updated 9:30 a.m. ET Sept. 28, 2006

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Photographer Larry Birkhead, a former boyfriend of Anna Nicole Smith, tells Us Weekly magazine that, no matter what a national TV audience was told Tuesday night, he’s the real father of the reality TV star’s newborn girl. And he’s seeking a DNA test to prove it.

Smith’s lawyer, Howard K. Stern, told CNN’s “Larry King Live” on Tuesday that he is the “proud father” of the girl, Dannie Lynn Hope, born Sept. 7, and he plans to marry Smith “at some point.”

“Right now we have to somehow get through what we’re going through,” said Stern, referring to the Sept. 10 death of Smith’s son, Daniel Smith. The 20-year-old Smith died of unknown causes at his mother’s hospital bedside in the Bahamas.

“And I’ll tell you, our baby is the one ray of hope,” Stern said.

In an interview on the magazine’s Web site, Birkhead calls Stern’s remarks “laughable.”

“I am not surprised he would say this but I am laughing at it,” he says. “Larry King didn’t even believe Howard.”

Birkhead says science can settle the matter. “I have asked for a DNA test and I welcome it,” he says.

He’s confident about what the results would be, saying, “I know I am the father of the child. I look forward to having a relationship with my new daughter.”

Stern did not immediately respond to a call by The Associated Press on Wednesday.

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