Larry Birkhead talks raising daughter Dannielynn, 15, out of the spotlight and their Kentucky Derby tradition

foxnews.com:

Larry Birkhead fought tooth and nail to provide a comfortable and consistent life for daughter, Dannielynn, after her late mother, Anna Nicole Smith, died when she was just five months old in 2007.

Birkhead, 49, met the late Playboy Playmate at the Kentucky Derby in 2003, and despite keeping their relationship relatively private at the time, he's continued to return to the historic annual event as a way to honor the past and continue creating new traditions with his little girl. "We had a really great time, and it's kind of been a tradition that we would go every year," he told Fox News Digital of the annual affair at the Barnstable Brown Derby Gala for the pre-Derby diabetes fundraiser.  "That's where I met Anna Nicole Smith.

And it's something that I've taken my daughter back every year since. She's old enough to kind of understand what it is." Larry Birkhead fought tooth and nail to provide a comfortable and consistent life for daughter, Dannielynn, after her late mother, Anna Nicole Smith, died when she was just five months old in 2007.

Dannielynn Birkhead and Larry Birkhead attend the 148th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 7. (Stephen J. Cohen) He added: "Since I did meet her mom there, it started off just kind of me taking her back and showing her around and kind of letting her know the stories that, you know, this is kind of where I met your mom and things.