Larry Birkhead goes 'On the Record'

This is a rush transcript from "On the Record ," June 11, 2007. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, HOST: Tonight, Larry Birkhead, the father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby girl, Dannielynn Hope Marshall Birkhead, goes "On the Record."

Nine months after Dannielynn was born, four months after Anna Nicole's sudden death and two months after a DNA test proved his paternity, Larry Birkhead has a whole new life with his daughter.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VAN SUSTEREN: Larry, so where are we?

LARRY BIRKHEAD, FATHER OF ANNA NICOLE SMITH'S INFANT DAUGHTER: We are in California, in what is, hopefully, home for me and Dannielynn. As of right now, I guess I'm taking it day by day to see how this is going to go because it's kind of a little bit emotional, coming back here, and just trying to see if we can make it through that. And maybe this will be our final spot.

VAN SUSTEREN: You'd lived here with Anna some time ago. I mean, a lot of your life was here.

BIRKHEAD: It was, just because we just see things that, you know, that — well, you see things that are reminders and you see things that — I guess, that — you look at the little things sitting around you. It's almost like you have the woulda-shoulda-couldas coming out. And you know, what if things were different? And maybe I should have done this, or Could I have done this to help, and do this? And then maybe we would be here under different circumstances, but...

VAN SUSTEREN: Danny lived here, as well?

BIRKHEAD: (INAUDIBLE) Yes. He was here. He lived here. Basically, everybody stayed here. And so it was...

VAN SUSTEREN: Harder than you expected?

BIRKHEAD: Yes. Because, you know, there's all this life that was here.

VAN SUSTEREN: Did you love Anna Nicole?

BIRKHEAD: Yes. I sure did. I still do, but you know, it's, like, (INAUDIBLE) you know? And I think probably, for her, in looking back, I might have loved her too much because maybe that scared her because she was — you know, she always had these people buzzing around her. She didn't know what they wanted or what they were all about. And something about us, even if we fought or — you know, we always made our way back to where, you know, we would get along again.

And there's plenty of times with Anna, she had the opportunities and she always — if she got mad at you, she would write you off in a second. And something about our relationship, she never did that to me. And so I felt like that there was definitely, you know, something special there. Of course, we have our daughter, which is, you know, evidence that — you know, that we had, you know, a special relationship. But I think that sometimes when she got — it was probably too normal for her.

VAN SUSTEREN: Do you think if Anna were here and I said, Did you love Larry Birkhead, what would she say?

BIRKHEAD: I think she would say yes. I think during the time of our relationship, not a lot of people knew that we were in a relationship. And I think she was getting more comfortable in the fact that — once she was pregnant, she knew that people were going to know. So she was coming around to where even with her friends that would come over, where they knew. We just didn't broadcast, you know? And they — it's not like we were sitting far apart from each other. You know, it was obvious that we were in a relationship, but we just never felt the need to say, you know — you know, This is my girlfriend, this is my boyfriend, whatever.

And also — it also — I think that the people that have a need to do stuff like that and say those things, it's like they're after something that — other than the relationship, you know? And I really didn't even care — I didn't even care if anybody knew (INAUDIBLE) People back — you know, limited amount of people back home knew.

But I think that — you know, as it was — as our relationship was coming to an end, even though I wasn't sure that's where it was headed to - - I don't even think that Anna (INAUDIBLE) that's where it was headed to. I think she was becoming more comfortable with that. And when, like, certain friends would come over, she'd say, Take a picture of me and Larry together.

And you'd almost want to say, Wait a second, because that wasn't something that was ever important to her. Or just acknowledgement. She didn't really — or you would not think it was important. It was important between us. And at the end of the day, you know, we had a accountability to each other towards, you know — you know, what our actions and our — you know, it wasn't like I was going to be out dating somebody else. She wasn't going to be out dating somebody else. But it was nothing that we had to, like, tell everybody (INAUDIBLE)

VAN SUSTEREN: It must have made you crazy, then, when she left, pregnant with your child. You knew it was your child. And she basically got mad at you and shut you off and went to the Bahamas. And you fought for your child.

BIRKHEAD: Well, and then you take the flip side of that and you say, Well, maybe I should have bragged about dating Anna Nicole. More people would have known and I wouldn't have had to go through this, you know, proof, you know, burden of proof to prove that I had this relationship and this kid (INAUDIBLE) You know, it makes me — it made me mad and it made me — you know, and I still get mad about it and — and — but I've learned in this, you know, with people, that — if you look at, for example, Anna's legal battles, there's players on one side that are dead, multiple people, couple people, and then you have Anna's — Daniel's gone, Anna's gone. And it's like, Do you want to stay mad at someone forever? Do you want to be angry, you know, forever? Do you want to live your life fighting people, and just because somebody might have done something or said something to you or about you or whatever?

Or does it — the big picture at the end of the day is when I can go into the nursery and scoop up my child, and that's what's important. It's not, Let me go back and rewind this seven or eight months and see if I can fight, you know, these — anybody for something that they've done because, really, I got what I set out to. Now I can't get the time that I lost back.

And I have to do — I have to have extra energy sometimes, and I have to do more things than I normally would on a daily basis because I have to — you know, I feel like I have to make up for lost time.

But I mean, anger — I don't know if that's going to help me or my daughter because I'm sure that she's going to be able to sense that, you know, something's wrong with me and — so I have to even just overdo it, you know? And I get mad. I get sad. I get happy. I get sad again and I get mad again. And it's just — it's a cycle. And you go from, Why did you do this, to, Why do I have to deal with this?

And then you also, on the flip side of that, you — I say sometimes, What did I do to deserve this? And then I'm holding my daughter and I say, Well, what did I do to deserve this? In a positive way. So I look at it - - I try to look at everything from all angles.

BIRKHEAD: Fatherhood — there's a magazine that recently came out, ranked Hollywood fathers. You're ranked number 6. Not bad. Especially — you're the only one, I should say, that's a single father. What's fatherhood? What's that all about? What's it like?

BIRKHEAD: It's great. It's a lot of energy, a lot of time. It's a lot of patience. And it's very — it's rewarding. It's probably, like, my biggest accomplishment. Throughout, you know, my life, I've had different jobs, like sales, and before I, you know, went into journalism, I got through college and I've had, like, sales awards. I've had — I've had plaques that say, you know, this, that, you know, the other, and top this, top that. And it doesn't — ain't nothing compares to being a father and listening to those cries.

VAN SUSTEREN: And I don't know if the viewers can hear it (INAUDIBLE) we can hear (INAUDIBLE) I noticed the first time you faintly heard Dannielynn cry, I saw your head sort of turn to the side. You do hear it ahead of everybody else.

BIRKHEAD: Yes.

VAN SUSTEREN: It's first we see your head turn, and then I hear the noise.

BIRKHEAD: Oh, it's this superpower sense that (INAUDIBLE) that I just go running and — she probably wants to play. she — but she's...

VAN SUSTEREN: We should say she's attended, right? She's there with — someone's taking care of her...

(CROSSTALK)

BIRKHEAD: She's not just crying (INAUDIBLE)

VAN SUSTEREN: Yes, she's not just crying, right.

BIRKHEAD: That's be in the next magazine next week.

VAN SUSTEREN: Yes, the next tabloid, Larry Birkhead...

(CROSSTALK)

BIRKHEAD: ... number 10 on the list.

VAN SUSTEREN: Now you're 400.

(LAUGHTER)

VAN SUSTEREN: What was it like when you first laid eyes on her? And where was this?

BIRKHEAD: This was in the Bahamas. And it was shortly after the hearings in Florida. And we had to decide on the burial and all that. And Howard asked if I wanted to come over and see the baby. Of course, you know, the answer was yes. And she was just kind of laying in the crib. And she just immediately just was clinging to me. And she just kind of — she'd grab onto me. She pinched my cheek. She put her hands on my face.

And I thought for — one of my biggest fears, I think, was that I was going — she was going to reject me, and I was going to say, Here, you take her back, you know? Or some (INAUDIBLE) but she didn't. And it was — it was — it was — it was kind of magical, you know? I always — that was, like, the delivery room for me because I never got that. I never got to...

VAN SUSTEREN: You're emotional about all this, aren't you. I mean, it's hard on you.

BIRKHEAD: Well, it's...

VAN SUSTEREN: Understandably so. I didn't mean to — but I mean, visibly, you know, it's — it's very visible. Let me ask you this. Which part about all this has got you the most? I mean, where's the biggest sense of, like, heartache?

BIRKHEAD: You know, my relationship with Anna was never — it was never a fairy tale story, like, you know, carry over the threshold. It was — you know, we had some bickers. We went back and forth. But that was part of it. And my whole thing with that was, is I was — even though sometimes I'm soft-spoken or I don't speak, I'm truthful when I speak. And so sometimes that made us clash. So we'd have these little arguments back and forth. And no matter what kind of argument it was, you know, it would just take time and everything would go away.

So I felt like this whole thing was just one more extended version of one of the smaller things that we were arguing about because the actual argument was something trivial. There were probably things that she wasn't saying to me behind the scenes that led her to do certain things and...

VAN SUSTEREN: (INAUDIBLE) trivial was about sunglasses, what started the last fight, wasn't it?

BIRKHEAD: The last fight was over sunglasses.

VAN SUSTEREN: Which was stupid.

BIRKHEAD: Which was very stupid. But it was — I don't think that's — she didn't take off out of here to the Bahamas because of sunglasses. It was — you know, there were things going on in her head that she didn't really share with me. And I think — I just thought that — I thought that this was just going to go away. And as we got closer and closer in all this back and forth, the legal stuff and everything, I thought that she was just basically going to say OK because no matter what people see out there on television, you know, me going to a courthouse — people think, you know, that's, like, this big war, which, in a way, I understand the perception of that. But there was still communication with the two of us behind the scenes all the way up until just a couple weeks before she died.

VAN SUSTEREN: And by going to the courthouse — it was over the paternity issue. Between the time the baby was born, you initiated paternity almost immediately.

BIRKHEAD: Immediately because I knew without a doubt the child was mine because I said — and you plan and you prepare for all this. And the problem is no one else knew. And because no one else knew, it became a mystery. And then people wanted to solve the mystery. But no one jumped up from day one and said, you know, This is my child.

And when I went to a courthouse, it wasn't like I was having — even though you might come out and you can rewind all the footage and you'll see me smiling or coming out, and you know, I might jump up when I hear the results or whatever, there's a little bit of, you know, celebration in achieving something, but there's no — I don't have a sense of victory, like I defeated somebody. I just did what I felt was right in my instinct to fight for my daughter.

And you know — and the first day I ever went to court, you know, basically, I was — I became sick to my stomach because I didn't — that was last place I wanted to be. It was the last place I wanted to go. There were too many things going on that were uncertain in my mind that maybe they're still unsolved, and things that were going on — I really didn't know what the circumstances were. I just knew that I had a daughter that I didn't know that I wanted to know, and that I wanted her to know me. And I didn't think there was anything wrong with that, so I felt like I was in the right 100 percent, 110 percent. I felt like the conversations that I had with Anna about that was that she wanted me to always quit (ph) the fight.

VAN SUSTEREN: If you said to her — and maybe you did say to her — Anna, I just want to be with my daughter, and if you're unsure, let's just do the DNA test — I mean, did you say something like that to her and...

(CROSSTALK)

BIRKHEAD: Well, I never said, If you're unsure because I knew she was sure.

VAN SUSTEREN: OK. She was sure, you were sure. When you say, I want to see my daughter, her response was what?

BIRKHEAD: Quit fighting me.

VAN SUSTEREN: And if you said, OK, I'll quit fighting you, but I want to see my daughter, then what?

BIRKHEAD: I'd say, Where would that get me? And she'd say, Well, a lot better place than you are now. But I mean, there was no definition to that. And that's the kind of talk that — that's the kind of stuff that, unfortunately — or you know, that was the kind of banter sometimes that we would go back and forth with when we had our little normal fights. So that, to me, was, like — , you know, I knew she was at a point where she was going to probably do the right thing. She just never made it to do that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAN SUSTEREN: What's going on with Howard K. Stern, Larry Birkhead's former rival? Larry Birkhead goes "On the Record" about their rivalry and their relationship next up. And stick around. You will get to see 9- month-old Dannielynn.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BIRKHEAD: Daddy's going to go to sleep. Daddy's going to sleep. OK, here I am. Here we go. One, two — what's next? Three.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAN SUSTEREN: Larry Birkhead brought his daughter and Anna Nicole Smith's daughter, Dannielynn, here to California for the first time. And Larry Birkhead went "On the Record."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VAN SUSTEREN: She died, as we all know, in February. And then Howard K. Stern fought you — - or not fought you but resisted a DNA test about paternity. I know that you're working with him now, and it seems like — from the outside, it appears you guys have, you know, buried the hatchet. What's your thought on even the resistance to do the DNA right from the get-go? Why did he do that? Do you think he believed he was the father?

BIRKHEAD: Some people do what some people want them to do and ask them to do. And some people do things that they shouldn't, and they — I don't know. I don't know how to answer that, you know? I'm trying to be...

VAN SUSTEREN: You don't want to start another war.

BIRKHEAD: I don't want — because...

VAN SUSTEREN: Yes, and I understand that.

BIRKHEAD: Well, and the problem is, is — and I've learned in this whole thing, too, and I've been guilty of it, is when you say things that are captured for years and years down the road, that that little baby in there is going to hear that stuff, and it's going to be — you know, it's kind of like less is best. I mean, why am I going to talk about why somebody did what they did, when today it's irrelevant? And it doesn't mean I agree with it. It doesn't mean that I — that I thought it was the right thing or the truthful thing. It just means that I think some people took things a little too far.

And I think that — I think a lot of things could be different. And I thought that I was doing everything that I could have. I mean, a year ago, I was flipping pancakes and running to stores, getting cakes, pies, ice creams, or whatever, and helping with morning sickness. And here I am today with my child, without the mother, without her brother.

And you know — and everything's taking on a whole different meaning, you know? It's like — you know, you just — it's the craziest thing. If you saw a movie, you wouldn't believe, but all of a sudden, I'm a part of it. And I'm having to try to put that all in perspective and try to figure out, basically, what's happened to me because, you know, I — this — all this moved so fast, and if you go from — you're being drug from this courthouse to that courthouse in a different city. You go to a different country. You're back again. You're all over the place.

You know, it's just like you don't even — it's like a rock star on tour because you — everything's swirling around you, and all of a sudden, you're looking at all these people that are — they either want something, they're sending you somewhere, doing something, your phone's ringing a million times. And you don't even have time to grieve. You don't have time to put anything in perspective. You don't even have time to — sometimes, it makes it difficult, all the outside interference, to even just do daily things like eat, like, you know, just to remember to eat and...

VAN SUSTEREN: You've lost weight.

BIRKHEAD: I lost a lot of weight. I'm slowly gaining it back. When I went home to Kentucky, I had some home-cooked food. But it's — that's part of it, it's stress. And people don't understand. They don't respect. They don't give you the time to do anything.

I think after the Florida trial, things changed for me, as far as how people saw me. They didn't — with exception of a limited couple of appearances, nobody even knew really too much about my situation, the relationship. And they kind of thrust me into this place I didn't want to be in. And it almost feels like I'm carrying a torch that Anna just passed to me. With her, I have all her legal battles that kind of now go on to me. I have all of her — the — I guess the responsibility of protecting things for my daughter and things that — also I have the wars with people that she had wars with.

So if she — if her — she didn't like some of her relatives, now those people are fighting me. And it — you know, and it just seems like I've been put in a position or thrust someplace that I really — didn't really desire.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAN SUSTEREN: Coming up: What were people throwing at Larry Birkhead when he went to the Kentucky Derby? And what does he feel guilty about? He will tell you in a moment. Plus hang onto your seat. Nine-month-old Dannielynn comes out to play. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAN SUSTEREN: A DNA test proved that Larry Birkhead is the father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby girl, Dannielynn. And now he is in the constant spotlight.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VAN SUSTEREN: You've become tabloid fodder in some way. I mean, people are coming out of the woodwork. Hard?

BIRKHEAD: You know, at first, it was because — I mean, they'll — it's weird because some of the same magazines and newspapers, and this, that, and the other, that you take photos for and you write for now...

VAN SUSTEREN: Meaning you?

BIRKHEAD: Right, that I have professionally worked for and with — and I'm at the other end of it. It's, like — you know, they — normally, they're calling you, you know, Hey, we're interested in such and such a photo you took or, you know, We want to write a story about So-and-So, or, You want to cover this assignment? And all of a sudden, I'm the assignment that they're covering and that — that the cameras are on me. And I'll go to a store, and there's, like, people hiding in trees, taking pictures of me, which is weird.

VAN SUSTEREN: Well, you know, it's sort of interesting because that was your business, is photography and journalism. A lot of viewers probably don't understand that. Just to give us an idea, how many photographs do you think you have or own? What's your collection?

BIRKHEAD: Oh, a couple hundred thousand or more, maybe, of just different images of different events, different — so it's like...

VAN SUSTEREN: A couple hundred thousand photos you have.

BIRKHEAD: Since — since — well, I've been taking pictures since 1998, and I've been writing, and I have a journalism degree. And so I started out writing, and I moved over to the photography. And I went back and forth, and then I just kind of shifted to the photography for the majority.

And those are things that I enjoy. And then the things that, just covering different events. But now it's become a nuisance because I can't go to a red carpet and covered event, because, you know, I tried that. I went home to the Kentucky Derby which is how I got my start covering events. Because when you are in from Kentucky and you want to do celebrity related stuff, there is not that much going on in Kentucky and you have to travel.

And so at a time when you go back, and I had all my equipment, and I was ready to work, and all these press inquiries come to the officials that they hold all these events and they want to know if I'm going to be there so they can interview me.

So at one point right before I went I said, I going to have my camera with me, I didn't think it was going to work out, and it didn't. And I was bombarded. And not only was I bombarded by the press, I was bombarded by screaming people, like fans and people that were holding signs up "Welcome Home Dannielynn and Larry," and throwing clothes and outfits and baby clothes.

And I felt like one of the Beatles, or something. And it's weird because you have to sit back and say all of this is for me.

VAN SUSTEREN: How many pictures do you think you have now of Dannielynn in your collection?

BIRKHEAD: Oh, gosh. Every morning when she gets up we play photo booth.

VAN SUSTEREN: What's that?

BIRKHEAD: It's a little program on my computer where you can just press a button and it's like you are in a photo booth. And I take hundreds—there is not a day that goes by that I tell myself I want to take at least one picture.

Part of me, for some strange reason feels—I hate to say—but guilty, in a way that I that I don't have the things that I should have. Like, I'm putting a baby book together and I don't have enough to fill it because I wasn't there for the first several months. So I feel like I have to do, you know, extra, just to—

VAN SUSTEREN: She starts at about six months with you?

BIRKHEAD: Yes. So, you don't have the baby's first foot footprint. You don't have the birth certificate. You have to watch videos that were taken in the delivery room to even see what that was like. You have to—

VAN SUSTEREN: Have you done that? You have watched her delivery?

BIRKHEAD: I watched—well, I watched it on Entertainment Tonight. I had to watch when the world got to see it, and that's the first I got to see it.

VAN SUSTEREN: What are you going to tell her when she gets older? Have you thought about that? Because this is a rather extraordinary start to a life.

BIRKHEAD: I thought about it. I'm more concerned about what she is going to hear from things that I don't tell her that's captured on video and court hearings, transcripts, and even things I had to participate in for the fight, things that I said that they were truthful, but—do we really have to go there? Did it have to come to that? That whole Florida thing did we have to go there and say this stuff and that stuff? And what was I even doing there?

VAN SUSTEREN: How about Anna Nicole's drug use? Have you have thought about that?

BIRKHEAD: No. I have thought about that. And I think I'm just going—it's probably going to make me more—it's probably going to make me more overprotective. It's tough.

Because I don't really want to—I don't like to think about it sometimes, so I don't know how I'm going to talk about some of the things that I don't even want to think about.

VAN SUSTEREN: You have got some time. You got a little time.

BIRKHEAD: Yes. So, that's what helps me with that. Today all I have to do is make her smile, make sure she is healthy, and put a roof over her head, and make sure she has all the affection and love she needs. And that stuff can I worry about later, because I have some things to worry about today that I can't even think about that, you know.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAN SUSTEREN: What was life like in Anna Nicole's inner circle? Larry gives the inside story next.

And stand by for Dannielynn Hope Marshall Birkhead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAN SUSTEREN: There is much more "On the Record" ahead first go to our New York newsroom where Harris Faulkner is standing by with the other headlines. Harris?

(NEWSBREAK)

VAN SUSTEREN: We sat down with Larry Birkhead, the father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby girl, Dannielynn. We asked Larry about Anna Nicole's lawyer, Howard K. Stern.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VAN SUSTEREN: Howard K. Stern, has a very tough life?

BIRKHEAD: Tough life?

VAN SUSTEREN: Yes. Is his life tough for him?

BIRKHEAD: He does have a tough life. I think he had a tough life when Anna was living. I think he has tougher life that she's gone. And I was only talking to Howard about funeral, about making sure Anna had a proper funeral, and it's something she would like, and from the whole Florida case, and we were basically all thrown together to work together to work together.

Now, it was three people, Virgie, myself, and Howard. And Virgie basically dropped out because her attorneys objected to every single thing coming and going. And so it was just me and Howard.

And so you're sitting there and talking to someone that really you haven't been the best of friends with. I had one goal in mind and that was just to make sure that Dannielynn 's mother had a proper burial, and that— so when do I have the talk about things down the road, that I felt like did I everything that I could to handle things appropriately.

The Howard thing is weird because when Anna and was living, Howard and I were not the best of friends. We never—you wouldn't find us breaking open a cold beer, of something, and sit around talking.

I mean, we did have those talks, and I did go out of my way quite a few times, because I was sensitive of Anna's circle. And if you got in that circle, there was something that she liked about you, and once you stayed in that circle, you were in, and when you were out, you were out.

So, I was always sensitive of the other people and what their intentions were. Whether it was they were interested in her romantically, or they just wanted more time as a friend.

You know, Howard and I, we—it wasn't like we was always arguing, but, of course, if there was a dispute between Anna and myself, Howard is going to stick up for Anna because that's his long-time friend. I mean he has known her for years and years and years.

VAN SUSTEREN: Here is a guy who has a law degree, obviously. I think he loved Anna, I mean, I have no reason to doubt that. But now he is living off his parents and doesn't seem to sort of be getting traction and getting his life together.

In some ways I have somewhat a sympathy because you are up and running. You are active, you are taking care of your child. He's still in the Bahamas sitting in the house.

And so I wonder is life tough for him? What's happening with him?

BIRKHEAD: Well, it is tough. Because it's tough from the sense—a lot of people—and again, I hate to say anything. Not that I hate to say positive things about people, but I don't want people to get the idea that I think everything that's happened is positive and that's the right way things should have went.

But what people don't understand is behind the scenes is Howard basically did a lot of things for Anna that nobody else wanted to do or would do. VAN SUSTEREN: Like?

BIRKHEAD: Four o'clock in the morning, go get me this, that and the other.

VAN SUSTEREN: A slave though. I mean, that's almost like being her slave.

BIRKHEAD: But—

VAN SUSTEREN: Which makes me feel sorry for him, a little bit, that he put himself in that position.

BIRKHEAD: Maybe that's not the best example. Or you get out there and you go get my money those people promised me, and you go do this and negotiate this.

I think what he really wanted to do was make Anna successful, and that he spent all of his time and energy in doing things, and coming up with things, and pitching projects, whether they were TV shows, or clothing lines. I mean he's worked tirelessly on contracts and revises and making sure that she didn't get screwed over by this person or that company, and it takes a lot of work.

VAN SUSTEREN: She is high maintenance.

BIRKHEAD: She is high maintenance, and she—and she demands a lot. And she demands not just that she—she demands a lot from you as a person.

For example, me as her photographer. If I went out and took a picture of Pam Anderson as a celebrity, that's the end of it. You don't go out and take a picture of another celebrity, because you are her photographer. That's what she wanted me to be. I never really wanted to fall in that trap, and I did take things of her exclusively.

But I was always adamant that I wanted to maintain my financial independence, and even more so when she was expecting the baby, because I didn't want to fall into a trap where someone is paying my bills, because then you become in a situation where people can tell what you to do and they—I think they lose respect for you, in a new a sense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAN SUSTEREN: Coming up, Dannielynn Hope Marshall Birkhead. You are waiting to see her, and you will in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAN SUSTEREN: An April DNA test proved once and for all Larry Birkhead is the father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby girl. Now Larry Birkhead is finally spending quality time with his nine-month-old baby daughter Dannielynn Hope Marshal Birkhead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VAN SUSTEREN: So Dannielynn.

BIRKHEAD: Here she is.

VAN SUSTEREN: How old is she now?

BIRKHEAD: She will be 9 months tomorrow.

VAN SUSTEREN: Any surprises about fatherhood? This is your first?

BIRKHEAD: Yes. Surprises? The hours.

VAN SUSTEREN: The hours. What kind of hours are there?

BIRKHEAD: Long hours.

VAN SUSTEREN: 24-7?

BIRKHEAD: Well, for the most part. I mean, I have some help helping me. But if she needs me, I'm there, I'm available 24 hours for her. But she is a great baby. She is happy.

VAN SUSTEREN: She is, look at that. She is happy. She bounces a lot.

BIRKHEAD: She loves to bounce. She loves music.

VAN SUSTEREN: She does? Can she dance?

BIRKHEAD: Well, she tries to. You want to try to dance?

VAN SUSTEREN: So, she's just about standing with help, right?

BIRKHEAD: Yes, she needs a little help. She loves—if there is any music going she will definitely goes to the music. She has got rhythm.

VAN SUSTEREN: How fun is it to wake her and have her smile at you?

BIRKHEAD: I love her in the morning. She is a really happy baby. Whenever she wakes up, she is always—she is just in a great mood. And she loves attention, she loves pulling on my hair, and she likes to beat me up sometimes.

VAN SUSTEREN: She's been holding this since we arrived.

BIRKHEAD: There are certain things that she just grabs on to and she won't let go. Sometimes that's me, and sometimes it's not, it depends on what her mood is.

VAN SUSTEREN: You know, it's just extraordinary how your life has changed in one year.

BIRKHEAD: Yes. Sometimes it's just too hard to believe. And sometimes I sit there—she effects my every decision, you know. And when people ask you to do things or travel, little things like, you want to go ride roller coasters? And what if something happened to me on a roller coaster and she is left by herself. I just get real paranoid.

And just somebody says let's go out to dinner or let's go for a trip somewhere, I just can't go. I can't, now that I have her, I just can't see separating from her any time.

VAN SUSTEREN: I suppose there is a real obvious answer to this, but let me ask you anyway. Was it worth all the fight?

BIRKHEAD: Oh, yes.

VAN SUSTEREN: Was it the worth the fight for her?

BIRKHEAD: Yes. Yes. She is my little princess.

And they are off, racing for the lead, Dannielynn. Want to fly? Want to show them how we fly? OK, let's fly. Here would go—1, 2, 1, 2—what's next? 3. Yaaay.

VAN SUSTEREN: Coming up, what's the story behind Larry Birkhead now infamous fight with his former lawyer Debra Opri? Find out in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAN SUSTEREN: Larry Birkhead and his former lawyer Debra Opri are engaged in a nasty legal battle. Larry Birkhead went "On the Record" about the bitter feud.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VAN SUSTEREN: All right, Debra Opri, you lawyer. What happened?

BIRKHEAD: Who?

VAN SUSTEREN: That's right, who.

BIRKHEAD: You know, that is kind of a question for her. I got into this to fight for my daughter, and to fight for paternity, and then a dispute over charges, and fees, and one thing has led to another.

VAN SUSTEREN: You hired to last September for the specific things, as I understand it, to establish paternity of Dannielynn. You signed a written contract at the end of September, and then one of the following day. Why were there two, one after another?

BIRKHEAD: I think she made me come back and sign something different the next day.

VAN SUSTEREN: Did you understand it fully?

BIRKHEAD: Well, I didn't really think it was relevant because she told me it was free service.

VAN SUSTEREN: Her service is supposed to be free.

BIRKHEAD: It was free because she said the publicity would garner and her career, and that when asked me to sign whatever she asked me to sign, she said it was because she couldn't initiate an action on the client's behalf in the state of California by putting zeroes in the fields that later spelled out a dollar amount later.

And so I paid all of my other attorneys willingly, because they told me—well some of them she hired, and I still pay them.

VAN SUSTEREN: During the course of any time representing you, did you have a media deal?

BIRKHEAD: What she did early on was she said I am not charging you to represent you. But if on the chance that you got a book deal, a movie deal, or whatever, would you give her a percentage of it?

VAN SUSTEREN: Would you give me, or I demand, or that's—

BIRKHEAD: The contract would say that you would get a percentage of it. And I said that I probably won't do one, so I do not mind signing it anyway.

And that was specifically for anything that she would negotiate it, and that she would negotiate it from the beginning to end, an unnamed project.

VAN SUSTEREN: You struck some deal, an unnamed project.

BIRKHEAD: At some point, the day of the funeral, I was told that it was necessary for me to sign some piece of paper that was part of an agreement.

VAN SUSTEREN: Why did it have to be done on the day of the funeral?

BIRKHEAD: I do not know.

VAN SUSTEREN: Who told you that it would be signed then?

BIRKHEAD: My former attorney.

VAN SUSTEREN: Debra Opri said you have to sign this now?

BIRKHEAD: And I was in no shape for the situation to sign anything. But that was also the day she instructed a third party to reroute money that was earmarked for myself from the project into her specific bank account.

I did, however, say on that day to her when I saw her numbers in her bank account, you do not take my money and put it in your bank account. And she said, oh yes, that she would.

That is on the heels of me telling her not to attend the funeral because I thought it was in poor taste, her being at the funeral, because she was not necessarily so outspoken about Anna and the media. And I didn't think it was proper. And she told she was going without negotiation to the funeral and I also got charged for her going to the funeral.

Some of the things she says, I just don't know where she's coming from as an attorney. I do not know who would want to work with me if I was an attorney saying some of the things like that.

VAN SUSTEREN: So, who would you rather have dinner with, Virgie, or Debra Opri?

BIRKHEAD: Well, that depends on what it would cost, and who is paying the bill.

I have had a dinner with Debra Opri, and it was very expensive. I had dinners that Debra Opri went to that were expensive that I did not even go to. So that doesn't seem like the road I would want to take with that.

VAN SUSTEREN: Virgie, by default.

BIRKHEAD: By default.

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