Anna Nicole Smith with daughter DannielynnAnna Nicole Smith’s daughter Dannielynn Birkhead has been named the sole heir of the former Playboy model’s estate.

Anna Nicole’s partner and attorney Howard K Stern sought to clarify Dannielynn’s status as Anna Nicole’s will was out of date when she died in February last year. Her will, written in 2001, stipulated that her estate should be left in its entirety to her son Daniel, who died shortly after Dannielynn’s birth in September 2006.

Judge Mitchel L Beckloff of the Los Angeles Superior Court ruled this week that Dannielynn is the new heir and established a trust on her behalf, with Stern and Dannielynn’s dad Larry Birkhead named as co-trustees.

Anne Nicole was left half of her former husband J Howard Marshall’s $1.8billion fortune but his family have contested the will since he died in 1995.