Thursday, 26 April 2007

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Larry Birkhead to bring Dannielynn home from Bahamas

Father and baby to move to US

On Thursday a Bahamas judge cleared Larry Birkhead to leave the country with his daughter, Dannielynn, PEOPLE has learned.

According to sources close to Howard K. Stern, who has raised Dannielynn since her birth on Sept. 7, Birkhead will take the infant home to the U.S. on Friday.

Stern, the longtime companion of Dannielynn's late mother, Anna Nicole Smith, is "upset and heartbroken" and finds himself facing the reality of being "single and on his own for the first time in many years," a source close to him says.

Still, Stern told Access Hollywood: "I just want Dannie to have a good life, and I'm hopeful that Larry is going to provide that for her, so it's bittersweet. It's hard, but I just want her to be as happy as she can be."

A source tells Reuters that, in exchange for allowing Birkhead to leave the Bahamas with Dannielynn, the court required that he return to the country for another formal custody hearing on June 8. Birkhead has been battling with Smith's mother, Virgie Arthur, over custody.

Birkhead has an apartment in Burbank, Calif. – only a few miles from the Studio City house where he often stayed with Smith before she moved to the Bahamas. However, sources say the photographer will first bring Dannielynn back to his hometown of Louisville, Ky., where his father – who recently suffered a heart attack – is looking forward to meeting his granddaughter.

Stern will remain in the Bahamas and is expected to write a book about his life with Smith. "It will be a cathartic experience for him," says a source.