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Smith’s lawyer says he’s the father

NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) _ A lawyer for Anna Nicole Smith said Tuesday that he was the father of the reality TV star’s newborn girl, who has been the couple’s one "ray of hope" as they have grieved the death of her 20-year-old son in the Bahamas. Howard K. Stern, who was with the family in the hospital the night that Daniel Smith died, told CNN’s "Larry King Live" they had named their daughter Dannie Lynn Hope.

"Right now we have to somehow get through what we’re going through," he said. "And I’ll tell you, our baby is the one ray of hope."

Daniel Smith, 20, died Sept. 10 while visiting his mother as she recuperated from giving birth three days earlier. Authorities have said there was no sign of suicide or foul play, and they were awaiting toxicology results to determine the cause of death.

"We’re still waiting to find out what the cause is," Stern said. "We also now have an indication that there may have been other prescriptive medication in his system but we don’t know, you know, if that would have contributed to his death or not."

Stern said he and Anna Nicole Smith planned to stay in the Bahamas long term.

"She wanted to be here to get away from the media and to start a new life and to give her daughter, you know, a chance to live a normal life," said Stern, who described himself as a "proud father."

He said Anna Nicole Smith was having a difficult time.

"It’s been very rough, you know, she said that she didn’t want to trade out children, meaning she didn’t want one to be born and another to die," he said.