All grown up! Dannielynn Birkhead stunned at the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, May 6, with dad Larry Birkhead by her side.
The 16-year-old, whose mother was the late Anna Nicole Smith, stunned in a Leo Lin gown that looked like a watercolor painting. The skirt featured a large yellow flower with green stems that faded up into a sky blue bodice. She topped off the look with a stunning necklace that belonged to her mother. Larry, 50, matched in a light blue suit with a gold tie.
Ahead of the race at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, Dannielynn got a guitar lesson from Bon Jovi alum Richie Sambora.
“Rockin’ the rest of @kentuckyderby our with Richie Sambora and Dannielynn,” Larry shared via Instagram on Saturday. “Richie graciously made good on his offer to give Dannielynn a private guitar lesson and spent a ton of time giving her confidence building tips and mastering the art of playing the guitar. Great guy! Dannielynn played a little @janetjackson ‘Black Cat’ for him. Now off to the @kentuckyderby after the Barnstable-Brown Gala last night.”
The father-daughter duo smiled alongside the musician for a few photos before Saturday’s race, which was their second event of the weekend.
Dannielynn was the spitting image of her late mother at the Friday, May 5, Barnstable-Brown Derby Eve Gala — and she had the pictures to prove it. The teen stunned in a black and white Guess shirt that included photos of Smith from her modeling campaigns for the brand. Dannielynn, who turns 17 in September, layered the long-sleeved top over a skirt from BCBG Max Azria. She added a stunning necklace from her mother’s personal collection. She finished off the look with dark eye makeup and face-framing curls falling out of her updo — mimicking Smith’s signature look.
The gala holds a special place in the Birkhead family’s hearts. “Tonight is the 20th anniversary where I met Dannielynn’s Mom at the same event,” Larry shared via Instagram.
Smith died of a drug overdose at age 39 on February 8, 2007, just five months after Dannielynn’s birth. Larry has been a single dad since winning his public custody battle.
“Sometimes you feel like a bodyguard, sometimes you feel like a chauffuer,” he joked to Us in 2020. “It depends on what the day is. But my job is dad and I think I’ve done a pretty good job. She’s adjusted to it and she’s just a normal kid.”
He added that Dannielynn is just like any kid who cringes at the sight of their parents being affectionate. She refused to watch some scenes from Lifetime’s 2020 docuseries Hopelessly in Love: Anna Nicole Smith and Larry Birkhead because she didn’t want to see the PDA.
“I said, ‘Come on in the room I want to show you this clip about when your mom met me for the first time,’” Birkhead recalled to Us at the time. “And she goes, ‘Oh, that’s cringey! I gotta get out of here.’ Because her mom was grabbing me and kissing me and squeezing on me, so she didn’t want to see that.”
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