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For the time being, Dannielynn remains at the home where Smith was living in the Bahamas, oblivious, of course, to the fight over who will raise her. On Feb. 10 Stern was reunited with the baby in front of TV cameras from Entertainment Tonight and The Insider. "She is so happy," says Bonnie. "She's turning over but not crawling yet. She laughs. She loves to play with hair. She loves it when you talk to her, and then she coos. She is such a sweetheart."
Less than a month after Dannielynn's birth, Birkhead filed papers in a California court to obtain legal custody of the child and establish paternity. But since Smith was based in the Bahamas at the time, she wasn't legally compelled to respond to a suit so long as she remained out of California. Following Smith's death, a judge refused to order an emergency DNA test (made at Birkhead's request) on Smith's corpse but asked that her body be preserved until Feb. 20, when another hearing will be held. (Birkhead's lawyer Debra Opri explained that they wanted Smith's DNA to make sure that the baby being tested was really hers and not a substitute slipped in to fool Birkhead and authorities.)
But in the days following Smith's death, the mystery around Dannielynn's paternity became deeper – and more bizarre. The eighth and current husband of Zsa Zsa Gabor, Prince Frederic von Anhalt has pledged to file a paternity challenge of his own. (Yet another man, Alexander Denk, who once worked as Smith's bodyguard-chef-trainer, told Extra on Feb. 12 that he could be the father as well.) And finally Virgie Arthur, Smith's mother, who flew to the Bahamas seeking protective custody of the baby, has since teamed up with Birkhead to try to claim Dannielynn. Stern, however, had a warning for Arthur: "Anna, she just despised that woman. As long as I have one breath left in my body, that woman will not see Dannielynn," he told ET coanchor Mark Steines.
