Zsa Zsa Gabor’s husband provided a DNA sample Friday in the dispute about the paternity of Anna Nicole Smith’s infant daughter, and said he wanted to raise the child if he was the father.
Frederic von Anhalt said he’s “almost sure” the test will prove he’s the father of 6-month-old Dannielynn. He says he carried on a decades-long affair with the former Playboy Playmate of the Year.
“I’m almost sure the baby’s mine, almost sure,” von Anhalt, 59, said after having a cotton swab brushed along the inside of his mouth. He added he hopes to gain custody as soon as possible.
“Oh, yeah, if it’s my baby, it belongs in my home,” von Anhalt said. “I’m going to take good care of it. I will be a good father.”
A judge in the Bahamas on Tuesday ordered a DNA test on the girl at the request of Smith’s ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead, who has also claimed paternity. Howard K. Stern, Smith’s companion, is listed as the father on the baby’s birth certificate.
Immediately after von Anhalt gave his sample at the Identigene Lab, his lawyer, Edward Lee, called on Stern, to do the same. Stern’s lawyer, James Neavitt, did not immediately return a call for comment.
Smith, 39, died Feb. 8 in a hotel room in Hollywood, Fla., but no cause has been given. Authorities plan to release autopsy results Monday.
Stern has been caring for the girl in the gated, waterfront home where he lived with Smith in the months before she died. The Bahamian courts have ordered Stern not to leave the country with the girl before a custody ruling.
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The baby, whose full name is Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern, could inherit millions from the estate of Smith’s late husband, J. Howard Marshall II. Smith had been fighting the Texas oil tycoon’s family over his estimated $500 million fortune since his death in 1995.
Von Anhalt acknowledged that his 90-year-old wife was angry after he announced last month that he could be Dannielynn’s father, but added that she has since forgiven him.
“If it’s my daughter, it’s my daughter, and Zsa Zsa can’t help but love her,” said von Anhalt, who uses the royal title prince, which he says was given to him by a German princess who adopted him.