The battle over the burial of model and television star Anna Nicole Smith is continuing, after the star's partner Howard K Stern told a court that she would want to be buried next to her son.
Stern made the claims after Broward County Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin decided that he was legally entitled to seek custody of the model's remains.
Smith's estranged mother, Virgie Arthur, is also seeking to claim the body for burial, saying that she is next of kin since Smith and Stern were not married.
A third party is also seeking custody of the body. Lawyer Richard Milstein has been appointed to represent the interests of Smith's baby daughter Dannielynn, who is currently at the centre of a paternity battle.
According to People magazine, Stern told the court: "Anna was very firm. The Bahamas was her home. That's where she wanted to raise (her daughter) Dannielynn, and she wanted Daniel to be near her."
"She was my best friend, my lover, the mother of my daughter. She was everything to me, literally everything. My whole world," Stern said.
"She picked out two double plots side by side that Daniel is currently resting in and where she wants to be as well," he said.
"Anna and Daniel were inseparable. Daniel was without question the most important person in Anna's life. From the time I met her, everything was for Daniel."
