Anna Nicole Smith to be buried in Bahamas after judge rules

A Florida judge has awarded custody of the body of former model Anna Nicole Smith to thecourt-appointed guardian of her infant daughter, who then said she would be buried in the Bahamas.

Broward County Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin revealed his surprise ruling on Thursday afternoon, awarding custody of Smith's remains to Miami lawyer Richard Milstein, guardian ad litem for five-month-old Dannielynn Smith. Seidlin had appointed Milstein the guardian of the babylast week.

Milstein issued a statement later saying Smith would be laid to rest in the Bahamas.

Seidlin had ordered Milstein to consult Smith's mother Virgie Arthur, her former boyfriend Larry Birkhead and her final companion Howard K. Stern in regards to the burial arrangements.

Arthur had been fighting to have her daughter's remains returned to their native Texas for burial, while Stern wants Smith interred in the Bahamas, alongside her 20-year-old son Daniel, who died there last September.

"Once this order is signed, you're all done with me," Seidlin said of the proceedings, during which details of Smith's personal life were revealed. The testimony also saw both sides bitterly accusing each other of profiting from her death.

The judge, who became emotional while reading out highlights of his decision, also added that while the handling of Smith's remainsis at Milstein's sole and absolute discretion, he himself would like to see the former Playboy playmate laid to rest alongside her son.

"I want her to be buried with her son in the Bahamas. I want them to be together," Seidlin said, choking up.

Earlier this week, Broward County's chief medical examiner, Joshua Perper, issued repeated warnings that Smith's body was decomposing more quickly than expected. If a decision wasn't made soon, he said, Smith's body could not be granted a public viewing for funeralservices.

The Florida hearing completes one legal hurdle left in the wake of Smith's sudden death this month.

A judge in California is presiding over a paternity lawsuit regarding Smith's daughter, Dannielynn. Stern is listed on her birth certificate as the baby's father, but Birkhead has claimed paternity.

Furthermore, Prince Frederick von Anhalt, the husband of actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, says he is the father, claiming to have been maintaining an affair with Smith for a decade.

Smith, a former Guess jeans model, actress and exotic dancer, gained notoriety for marrying Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II in 1994, when he was 89 and she was 26.

He died in 1995 and she had been fighting his family over the estimated $500-million USestate in the decade since.