Anna Nicole Smith was one of contemporary America's most controversial figures, never far from the tabloid headlines. A model by trade, she first shot to fame in 1993 in Playboy, and began to build her career from there. Amongst several of his controversies was her marriage to octogenarian billionaire, J Howard Marshall, and more recently the death of her son and her fatal accidental drug overdose in 2007. Nevertheless it was the disputed paternity of her daughter that first captured the media spotlight, and became a vitally high profile case for DNA testing, more specifically DNA Paternity testing.

The controversy first began when Smith announced she was pregnant in 2006, which prompted speculation as to who the father of the child may be. Initially, her legal counsel Howard K Stern said in front of a live TV audience that he had been in a relationship with Anna Nicole Smith immediately prior to conception of the baby, thus proclaiming that he was the most likely father of the child. Indeed on the child's birth certificate, Howard K Stern was recorded as having been her father.

It was also proposed at one stage that the child might be that of her dead husband, after it was rumoured that Anna Nicole Smith froze a sample of her husband's sperm for such a purpose prior to his death. However this was later suggested to be untrue, and was discounted as a possibility. There were, however, a number of other contenders that it was thought may be likely to be the father of the child.

Amongst other proposed fathers was one of Smith's former security guards, as well as the husband of actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, who claimed to have had a long standing secret relationship with Anna Nicole Smith and could make him a potential candidate for biological father. Finally it was also proposed that her ex-boyfriend, photographer Larry Birkhead may be the father of the baby.

Ultimately, the DNA testing in the Anna Nicole Smith case supported that Larry Birkhead was the father or her daughter, bringing the months of speculation and media interest to a head. Despite the claims of Howard K Stern made earlier regarding his parentage, the judicial ruling was made on the strength of the DNA evidence presented, thus it can be safely assumed that Larry Birkhead was indeed the true biological father.

This resulted in Birkhead obtaining custody of the child, subsequent to her mother's death in 2007. Howard K Stern, the other leading party to the case, elected not to appeal against the DNA evidence that was submitted, and thus parentage was settled with Smith's former lover.

While the results did come through in the end to provide a conclusive outcome, it was the first time DNA testing reached such media intensity and coverage. Similarly, other celebrities have since been involved in high profile DNA testing cases, usually concerning paternity of a celebrity baby, which never fail to capture the imagination of the general public.