Larry Birkhead on Anna Nicole Smith's 'cult-like' inner circle

Larry Birkhead is opening up about his romance with the late Anna Nicole Smith.

The freelance celebrity photographer recalled their fling in an interview with another bombshell blonde, Bunnie Xo, on the "Dumb Blonde Podcast" on Monday, March 23. He called the dynamic surrounding Smith "a little cult-like" and full of "yes men."

"I don't want people to run with this, but it kind of felt a little cult-like," he told Bunnie, real name Alisa DeFord. "I didn't want to be an entourage member or whatever. So, I maintained independence. I still worked and did my own thing. I wasn't asking her for money."

Birkhead, 53, recalled being outside of the former Playboy playmate's business circle and orbiting the people around her. "The people in the house, they were having their bills paid, but at the same time, the people in the house were working for her," he continued.

Before Birkhead entered Smith's life in the mid-2000s, she and her partner and business manager, Howard K. Stern, already had a longstanding, complicated companionship, in which the pair lived, worked and traveled together in a romance that was not publicly defined or confirmed until after her death.

Birkhead and Smith's relationship was also under the radar.

"I had my own issues with Howard as far as like him stepping into the relationship territory between myself and Anna. But at the same time, on the flip side of things, I watched him work tirelessly, and negotiate all of her contracts and not take a fee," said Birkhead.

Birkhead said Stern still hung around during their relationship, which "hurt" him and their relationship. "But on the flip side of things, if you look at it from his perspective, where, you know, could he sit back and watch this person take advantage of Anna," he added.

The couple's daughter, Dannielynn Birkhead, at first publicly said to be Stern's, was born in September 2006 in the Bahamas. Weeks later, Smith and Stern held a non-legally binding vow exchange in the island country. Smith died from a combined drug intoxication months later, in February 2007, at age 39.

After Smith's death, a highly publicized custody battle ensued in which Birkhead was determined to be the father through DNA testing.

This story has been updated for clarity.