Dannielynn Brikhead, Anna Nicole Smith’s Daughter, Turns 10

Anna Nicole Smith‘s surviving daughter Dannielynn Birkhead recently turned 10, and is living a normal life, according to her father, Larry Birkhead.

Dannielynn Birkhead

To mark Dannielynn’s 10th birthday, Larry gave an update about the daughter of the late model and reality TV star in an interview on the Today show. Though Larry has let Dannielynn dabble in modeling in the past, he insists that they’re now living a quiet life away from the industry in Kentucky.

“I made a conscious decision a long time ago to move to Kentucky. I do that on purpose because it takes away the chase, it takes away the curiosity, it takes away the false stories,” Birkhead explained on Today. “People call me all the time and say can she be in a movie, can she model? I didn’t care about it, so I’d say no she’s not interested. She’s just a regular kid. She’s into technology now and she’s into games and these YouTube videos.”

When Dannielynn was born, there was much contention about who her father actually was. Initially, Smith’s lawyer and longtime partner Howard K. Stern was believed to be her father and was listed on her birth certificate. After a DNA test, it was proven that Larry, a former partner of Smith’s, was her biological father.

“You look back on it, and I’m a better person and a stronger person because of the stuff that I went through,” Birkhead said. “I look back ten years, I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Dannielynn was born just three days before the death of her half-brother Daniel Wayne Smith and five months before her mother died of a prescription drug overdose.

“There’s things left unanswered, things that I didn’t get to say to [Anna], and it’s tough when you go to school and you’re filling out the forms,” Larry told Today. “It gets me every year. And you have to put ‘deceased’ on her mom’s information. […] We make the best of it, and I think Dannielynn’s best days are still to come. She’s got such a bright future in front of her, and I try every day to keep a little bit of the memory alive of her mom.”