Larry Birkhead gay?

Untrue romance? Birkhead denies tale of gay relationship

Larry Birkhead is flexing some legal muscle now that a former male model has claimed Anna Nicole Smith's baby daddy was once his lover.

Kerrick Ross, 38, tells The National Enquirer that he met Birkhead at a party in Louisville, Ky., in 2000. "[He] had a straight aura about him, which I liked," claims Ross. "We ended up having sex that night."

"We were together for about two months and had sex eight to 10 times," claims Ross. "He often spent the whole night with me."

Birkhead denies he and Ross had a gay relationship, and he's now hired Rotweiler libel lawyer Marty Singer.

But Enquirer editor David Perel maintains that Ross "has pased a rigorous polygraph test. We also obtained independent eyewitness confirmation of their relationship. We have more information that we haven't published."

Birkhead is said to worry that The Enquirer story could hurt him in his Bahamian custody battle with Smith's mother, Virgie Arthur, over daughter Dannielynn. Says Perel: "We went to many legal experts who all said his having a gay relationship would have no bearing on the case."

Source