Dannielynn Birkhead Wants Her Father to Date Again, Appears on 'Celebrity Wife Swap' (VIDEO)
Larry Birkhead has been the single father to daughter Dannielynn ever since her mother, Anna Nicole Smith, died in 2007. Now the 41-year-old father says that Dannielynn has encouraged him to start dating, so he has participated in "Celebrity Wife Swap" in order to see how things may go should he settle down.
"I want to get out there, and Dannielynn has been pushing me out the door trying to get me to go on dates now for a couple of years," Birkhead told the "Today" show.
The two appear on "Celebrity Wife Swap," with Birkhead trading his sister Angela with the girlfriend of racecar driver Helio Castroneves' girlfriend, Adrianna Henao.
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"I was like, 'Look you guys know I'm not married,'" Birkhead said, "and they are like, 'Does anybody help you out with your daughter?' And I said, 'Yeah, my sister.' They said, 'We can send your sister and exchange her for somebody's wife or fiancé or girlfriend.' So I said, 'OK, where do I sign up?' and I was packing. I think I actually packed her bags."
And 7-year-old Dannielynn was as eagerly excited to participate in the show and have a "substitute mom" as Birkhead explained.
"I'm both parents to Dannielynn, so it is hard to flip the switch. I don't have the good cop/bad cop type of thing, so I'm both cops," he said. "I said the words 'substitute mom' or a 'wife' to come in, and she just immediately lit up and was like, 'Really? Really?'"
Birkhead added that he does everything he can to keep Anna Nicole's memory alive for their daughter, even though she never knew her. Dannielynn has already been a model in a Guess campaign and will inherit nearly $50 million from her mother's estate, though that has no meaning for Birkhead, who is solely focused on making sure his daughter is happy and healthy. In fact, he actually believes that fame and fortune contributed to Anna Nicole's downfall.
"I think that, more than fame and celebrity, is what caused Anna heartache," he said of the battle for Anna Nicole's estate.
Watch Birkhead talk about his time on the show here:
