EXCLUSIVE: Larry Birkhead on how daughter Dannielynn copes without her late mom & who she wants him to date!
Larry Birkhead is opening up about how Dannielynn, his daughter with late model and actress Anna Nicole Smith, is coping without her mother as she nears her teens and the doting dad had some surprising revelations -- like who the 11-year-old would like him to date.
“She told me today, ‘I think you need to go out with Kylie Jenner,’” Birkhead tells ET’s Kevin Frazier during an exclusive interview at their Kentucky home. “I said, ‘Well, she's a little young,’ and she said, ‘OK, what about Kim?’ I said, ‘Well, she’s married,’ and she goes, ‘OK, what about the mom, Kris?’ I [asked why she’d] say that and she goes, ‘I remember she had a frozen yogurt machine in her house.’”
And that's not the only time Dannielynn has tried to pressure her dad into dating.
“We went to a swim party and it was a bunch of moms and I felt out of place, sitting there going, ‘I can do this,’ [while] they’re all gossiping," Birkhead continue. "Then Dannielynn comes over, takes my foot and slides it next to the mother’s foot next to me. She says, ‘Y’all need to get to know each other.’ It’s cute when she tries to push me out of the house and get me to date and do things.”
Birkhead says Dannielynn even “catalogue shops” on the internet, commenting on women that might suit her dad, with her her sights set on pop stars like Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga and Britney Spears!
“We saw Britney Spears at a movie premiere and she fell over backwards because she thought that was going to be her mom,” Birkhead recalls. “Britney said, ‘I love your dress,’ and she fell down on the ground.”
WATCH: Inside Anna Nicole Smith's Home That's Now for Sale
Despite her persistence, Birkhead says he is not currently dating anyone.
“I've been on a few dates and the thing is that, early on, it's too much commotion [with girls] thinking [I was] looking for [another] Anna Nicole,” he shares. “I had one girl come and try to try on Anna Nicole's jewelry; I had one girl show up and try to look like Anna Nicole. And, they just want to talk about the whole situation.”
He would like to find love again and admits that Dannielynn constantly talks about expanding the family. In fact, the determined young girl even started collecting adoption brochures for her dad!
“We went to a museum in Indianapolis and she started pulling these brochures for these kids that were up for adoption and she said, ‘Just surprise me when you get home. Bring the best one home,’” he recalls. “I said, ‘It’s not that easy. You can’t really do it that way.’”
Birkhead adds that Dannielynn doesn’t ask too many questions about Smith, who died 10 years ago from an accidental overdose, since people are always talking about her. While he has faced some awkward moments, like explaining why her Wikipedia page states that her surname was “Stern” as a baby (Smith’s partner, Howard K. Stern, was listed as the father on Dannielynn’s birth certificate, before a DNA test proved Birkhead was her dad), she's “more accepting” of missing her mom as she gets older. However, she continues to crave for a motherly figure.
“She is clinging to the female teachers,” Birkhead says. “She's clingy to her girlfriends’ moms and she’ll say things like, ‘Do you want to adopt me? Would you be my honorary mother?’ She tends to do that a lot.”
Regardless of whether the pair eventually welcomes new family members into their lives, Birkhead is happy putting all of his energy into being her dad and is proud of the young woman she is turning into.
“The other day, she had a friend whose fish died and she said, ‘Don't worry about your fish, it's up there with my mom. My mom's taking care of your fish and it’s gonna be OK.’ It was something that she came up with. It was true from the heart and that's how she deals with it and I'm proud that she is who she is. “
“She's a good kid and we laugh and have the best times and she wears me out,” Birkhead adds. “I'm going on amusement park roller coasters doing 200-foot drops holding on to her and she says, ‘I told you the last time, do not hold on to me!’ Sometimes you just have to say, ‘I gotta let you go and become your own person.’ You can only do so much. Sometimes I'm amazed by the way she handles things.”
WATCH: Larry Birkhead Offers Inside Look Into Raising Anna Nicole Smith's Daughter Dannielynn
See more on Dannielynn in the video below.
