Dannielynn Birkhead, the daughter of the late Anna Nicole Smith, may be finally entitled to some of the fortune left by her mother’s late husband, oil billionaire J. Howard Marshall, following a ten-year-long legal battle.
Although Dannielynn Birkhead was declared the sole heir to the estate back in 2008, The Supreme Court had ruled that Anna Nicole Smith’s estate was not entitled to any of J. Howard Marshall’s fortune.
On Thursday however, a Californian judge said that Dannielynn Birkhead, who is now 6-year-old, is entitled to sanctions against J. Howard Marshall’s family, reports TMZ.
Dannielynn Birkhead could now be entitled to up to $49 million of J. Howard Marshall’s fortune, which is estimated to be between $500 million and $1billion.
The judge made their decision based on allegations that attorneys working for J. Howard Marshall’s estate used unsavory tactics through litigation, including concealing crucial legal documents from Anna’s estate lawyers.
Anna Nicole Smith herself went to court after J. Howard Marshall’s death in 1995, claiming he promised to leave her $300 million, even though his will made no mention of her.
After Anna Nicole Smith died from a d**g overdose in 2007 aged 39, her lawyers argued that the money should go to Dannielynn Birkhead, who was fathered by one of her lovers, Larry Birkhead, 37.
But a federal court later ruled that J. Howard Marshall intended to leave his entire fortune to Pierce Marshall, his son by an earlier marriage.
Anna Nicole Smith married oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall in 1994 when she was just 26, and he was 89.
J. Howard Marshall died a year later.
Meanwhile, Dannielynn Birkhead is growing up to be the spitting image of her mother, who was aged just 39 when she was found dead in a Florida hotel room.
Her father, Larry Birkhead, who was forced to establish paternity in a suit against Anna Nicole Smith’s then partner and lawyer Howard K. Stern, seems to have done an excellent job raising his daughter by himself.
“I see her mom in everything she does,” Larry Birkhead told 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,” Larry Birkhead added.
