7 Forgotten Celebrity Paternity Scandals
Published on September 5, 2014. Updated April 3, 2017Paternity suits are never easy – especially for celebrities. These types of situations fuel media attention and the focus is generally quite negative. While some of the celebrities in our list below took DNA tests to prove they were in fact the parents of these children, others took tests to prove they weren’t. It shouldn’t be too surprising that some people are after fame and fortune and figure that a paternity suit against a wealthy celebrity will bring them one, the other or both. Fortunately for some stars, they weather these storms so well that most of us forgot they ever happened. Here is our list of 7 forgotten celebrity paternity scandals! Check it out:
7. Eddie Murphy
Eddie Murphy was pretty hesitant to legally acknowledge that Melanie B’s daughter Angel was his. When the former Spice Girl was pregnant, the “Shrek” star was skeptical that the child was his and, even after taking a DNA test that proved that he was the father, he still didn’t legally assume responsibility. It took Scary Spice filing a paternity suit against Murphy for him to publicly acknowledge that Angel was his and start paying child support. It reportedly took the actor a few more years to start attempting to build a relationship with his daughter.
Everett Collection / Shutterstock.com6. Larry Birkhead
Larry Birkhead was involved in a pretty dramatic paternity suit over Anna Nicole Smith’s daughter Danielynn. He firmly believed that he was the child’s father; however, Smith’s former lawyer Howard K. Stern had been listed as the father on the child’s birth certificate. Following a DNA test, it was proved that Birkhead was Danielynn’s father. When he exited the court that day, he told the crowd, “I hate to be the one that told you this, but, I told you so!” Birkhead and Stern weren’t the only men to claim paternity. Mark Hatten, Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt and Smith’s former bodyguard Alexander Denk also maintained that they were Danielynn’s father.
s_bukley / Shutterstock.com5. Justin Bieber
Justin Bieber has been slapped with more than one paternity suit. In 2011, Mariah Yeater filed a paternity claim against the young superstar, claiming that he had impregnated her when they hooked up backstage after one of his concerts. Bieber took a paternity test, which proved that he wasn’t the child’s father; however, two years later, he was hit with yet another paternity suit from a different woman, whose claims were very similar to Yeater’s. The case must have been thrown out of court because we haven’t heard anything about it since 2013.
Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com4. Kourtney Kardashian
Kourtney Kardashian’s reported ex-lover Michael Girgenti spent a few years running from one tabloid to the next claiming that he was Mason’s father. The fame hungry model maintained that he had a brief affair with the reality star nine months before the child was born and wanted a paternity test to confirm that he was the father. His allegations proved to be false. Kardashian released a paternity test that proved that Scott Disick was Mason’s father and that Girgenti was really only after money and fame.
Everett Collection / Shutterstock.com3. Jude Law
Jude Law’s sexual exploits have been making headlines for years so, in 2009, when model Samantha Burke claimed to have had a brief affair with him, which left her pregnant, we all figured that it was probably true. The Oscar-nominated actor, however, wasn’t convinced – he demanded a paternity test to make sure the child was his. Once it was confirmed, it took Law another six months for him to actually go and see his daughter.
Everett Collection / Shutterstock.com2. Marc Anthony
In 2004, a 21-year-old Miami waitress named Elizabeth Leyva filed a paternity suit against Marc Anthony, claiming that had fathered a child with her the previous year. The singer spent months denying the claims; however, he ended up taking a paternity test to put the issue to rest. Lucky for him, the test proved that he was not the father; however, the scandal ended up being the nail in the coffin for his marriage to Dayanara Torres.
s_bukley / Shutterstock.com1. Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney allegedly fathered a child back in the early ‘60s. The mother, Erika, sought alimony, but the former member of The Beatles denied the accusations and paid her a sum of money. In the ‘80s, Erika took McCartney back to court for maintenance payments and formal recognition that he was the father of her daughter Bettina. He reportedly took a blood test, which came back negative. In 2007, Erika and Bettina tried to take McCartney back to court, claiming that a stand-in did the test for him. According to them, the person who signed the documents for the paternity test was right-handed and that Paul is left-handed. None of this was ever proven. The case ended up being thrown out of court because the statute of limitations for fraud is five years.
Jaguar PS / Shutterstock.com