Anna Nicole's baby is mine, claims her lawyer
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Anna Nicole Smith's long-time lawyer, Howard K. Stern, has amazingly claimed he is the father of her newborn baby daughter.
Stern, 40, who has never publicly admitted a relationship with the former model, insisted he was the baby's 'proud father', adding: "Based on the timing of when the baby was born, there really is no doubt in either of our minds."
He said they now planned to marry and start a new life together with their baby in the Bahamas - where Nicole Smith's 20-year-old son Daniel mysteriously died three days after his sister was born.
Stern also revealed for the first time that the former Playboy centrefold was actually in the same bed as Daniel when he died.
She woke to find his lifeless body lying next to her and screamed at Stern, who was asleep in the hospital room: "Howard, Howard, Daniel's not breathing."
He said Daniel had been depressed over the break-up of a relationship with a girlfriend but he was sure there was no way he had committed suicide by deliberately overdosing on the prescription anti-depressants he was taking.
Bahamian Authorities have said there was no sign of suicide or foul play, and they were awaiting toxicology results to determine the cause of death.
Stern's claim to be the father of the baby, christened Dannie Lynn Hope, in memory of her brother, is the latest astonishing twist in the life of the 38-year-old former stripper.
Celebrity photographer Larry Birkhead last week claimed Nicole Smith had told him he was the baby's father and he wanted to be a part of her life.
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But Stern added: "Anna and I have been in a relationship and we love each other and it's been going on for a very long time and because of my relationship as her lawyer, we felt that it was best to keep everything hidden. And we've actually done a pretty good job of that."
He said he would be prepared to take a DNA test to prove he was the father if asked to do so by a court, but would not do it simply to prove Birkhead wasn't the dad.
"Well, if legally compelled to do so, I will," he said. "But I'm not going to do any favours for him right now."
And he said Nicole Smith was still struggling to come to terms with the loss of Daniel and her baby was the one thing keeping her going.
"Our baby is the one ray of hope and it's the one thing that's really keeping her going," he said. "She's having a tough time of it. I can't really imagine being in any worse of a condition. I mean she has help. She's doing the best that she can but this is a really tough thing to deal with.
"She's just, she's struggling with her emotions. It's been very rough. She said that she didn't want to trade out children, meaning she didn't want one to be born and another to die.
"Daniel was more than a son to her. They were great friends, best friends and, you know, Daniel was her rock. So, everything that she's gone through Daniel's been there with her. And honestly I don't know how we're going to get through this."
He told veteran American interviewer Larry King about Daniel's last hours in the Bahamas, where Nicole Smith has bought a home to "start a new life" and escape the media spotlight.
Daniel flew to the capital Nassau three days after his sister was born and Stern said he picked him up at the airport and drove him to the hospital to meet her.
"We drove from the airport to the hospital and when we got there, you know, he saw his mum and he hugged his mum and he picked up his baby sister like he'd been around babies his whole life, even though I don't think he'd ever really been around babies.
"And it was just, it was a great - it was like one of the best nights that I've ever remembered. I mean Anna was so content. She had her son and her new baby girl and I was there and it was great."
Stern said Daniel had insisted Stern use the spare bed in Nicole Smith's room because he wasn't tired and planned to stay up and watch TV.
"And, remember that Anna had had a C-section two days before, so she needed help and still needs help to get to the bathroom and things like that and Daniel helped her out to the bathroom and this happened many times throughout the night.
"And then, at one point Daniel said to me, 'how come I'm so tired?' And, in hindsight I wish that I had seen that as some sort of a signal and seen that something wasn't right."
He said the next thing he remembered was waking up because Nicole Smith was yelling that Daniel wasn't breathing.
"So I went over there really quickly," he said. "And, at this point Daniel had moved into bed with his mum, so they were actually staying in the same bed.
"And, I checked Daniel's neck and I didn't feel anything and we called the nurses and said it was an emergency. And then, medical staff just came rushing into the room and they tried to revive him and they tried to ask or tell Anna and myself to leave but she wasn't going to leave her baby.
"And she, she stayed there and we were at the foot of the bed and she was hugging Daniel's leg and she was praying to Jesus and she was telling Jesus to take her and not take Daniel. "
He said she screamed out "No, no" when the doctors told her Daniel had died.
"And she just didn't want to believe that he had died and she wanted to keep trying to save him and keep going. And she had me, pumping the air into his mouth or down his throat and she was pushing on his chest trying to revive him."
Nicole Smith is still embroiled in a bitter legal battle over her late husband's fortune.
She has been given the right to fight for half of her late oil baron husband's GBP 800million fortune by the US Supreme Court.
She was 26 when she married 89-year-old wheelchair-bound J Howard Marshall II in 1994. When they met two years earlier, she was working as a topless dancer in a club in Houston, Texas.
Marshall's death 14 months later triggered a legal battle between Nicole Smith and Marshall's son Pierce, who died unexpectedly earlier this year, aged 68.
She claimed her husband promised half of his estate, but Pierce Marshall said his father only wanted her to have the GBP 3m-worth of gifts she received in 1994.