After a legal battle that dragged on for more than a decade, Dannielynn Birkhead, the daughter of the late Anna Nicole Smith, may finally be entitled to some of her mother's late husband's fortune, according to the Daily Mail.
Anna Nicole Smith shocked the nation when she married Texas oil billionaire Howard Marshall, who died a year after their marriage at age 90. In 2008, Birkhead was declared the sole heir to the estate, but the Supreme Court ruled that Smith was not entitled to any of Marshall's fortune.
According to TMZ, a California judge said on Thursday that 6-year old Birkhead is entitled to sanctions against Marshall's family, up to $49 million of the late Marshall's fortune, which is estimated to be between $500 million and $1 billion. The judge made the decision based on allegations that "attorneys working for Marshall's estate used unsavory tactics through litigation, including concealing crucial legal documents from Anna's estate lawyers."
After Marshall's death, Smith went to court in 1995, claiming he promised to leave her $200 million despite his will making no mention of her. After she died of a drug overdose in 2007 at age 39, her lawyers said the money should go to her daughter, fathered by one of her lovers, Larry Birkhead. Dannielynn Birkhead currently lives with her father.
Larry was forced to file a paternity suit against Smith's then partner and lawyer Howard K. Stern at the time of Smith's death.
"I see her mom in everything she does," he said to UsWeekly. "We were at the Kentucky Derby and she started smiling and posing like her mom would. People ask me to put her in modelling, but I don't want to push."
Click here to see photos of Dannielynn Birkhead and her father.
