Anna Nicole Smith’s longtime lawyer and companion is appealing a judge’s directive for a DNA swab test on the former Playboy Playmate’s 6-month-old daughter, the subject of a custody battle in the Bahamas, legal sources said Wednesday.
But Court TV reported the mouth swab test had already been done and would be sent to a laboratory in Ohio.
The legal sources, who asked not to be identified, said lawyers for Howard K. Stern were drawing up papers to block Judge Stephen Isaacs’ directive Tuesday that a swab be taken from Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern.
“It was hoped the appeal would be heard today, but, the situation being what it is here in the Bahamas, it’s unlikely it will be heard until next week,” a source said. “I gather they are shooting for Monday.”
The paternity lawsuit was brought in the Bahamas by Larry Birkhead, an ex-boyfriend of the billionaire’s widow whose sudden death in Florida on Feb. 8 touched off a custody battle for her daughter.
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Birkhead, a Los Angeles photographer, said he is the father of the baby who is heir apparent to Smith’s estate. The estate could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars if it wins a fight to inherit from Smith’s late oil tycoon husband, J. Howard Marshall.
Stern is listed as Dannielynn’s father on her Bahamian birth certificate. Other men also have said they may be the child’s biological father.