Vanessa Bryant recently reacted to her own mother’s lawsuit against her, which she called “unimaginably hurtful.”
What’s going on?
Vanessa Bryant said in a recent statement that her mother, Sofia Laine, was trying to “extort a financial windfall from our family” almost one year after the death of Vanessa’s husband, Kobe Bryant.
- Kobe Bryant and Gianna Bryant, 12, died Jan. 26 in a helicopter crash in California.
Laine is reportedly suing Vanessa Bryant for financial support, saying she worked unpaid as a “longtime personal assistant and nanny” for the Bryant family, according to People magazine, which obtained copies of the lawsuit.
Laine said in the lawsuit that Kobe Bryant “promised to take care of” her “for the rest of her life” before he passed away.
Vanessa Bryant refutes the claims
Vanessa Bryant issued a statement that refuted the claims against her family, according to Yahoo! Entertainment.
“I have supported her for nearly 20 years, and she was never my or Kobe’s personal assistant, nor was she a nanny. I have always been a stay-at-home mother and my husband and I were our daughters’ full-time caregivers.”
“For nearly two decades, we arranged for my mother to live in our nearby properties, at no cost to her because she had claimed that she didn’t have any money to buy her own home after her divorce. My husband and I felt it was best for her not to live in our home. She watched our girls from time to time, just like most grandparents do. She did not take care of business issues or expenses.
“She was a grandmother who was supported by me and her son-in-law at my request. She now wants to back-charge me $96 per hour for supposedly working 12 hours a day for 18 years for watching her grandchildren. In reality, she only occasionally babysat my older girls when they were toddlers. As of 10 years ago, our kids were full-time students and athletes and I didn’t have another child until 2016,” she continued. “Her claims are obviously false but I still tried, repeatedly, to work things out with my mother. Contrary to what she’s saying, I haven’t left my children’s side since the accident except to visit the cemetery to make arrangements.”
Bryant concluded: “She is now trying to get more money than my husband and I ever spent to provide for her while he was alive. She has no regard for how this is affecting my children and me. She wants to live off of my daughters and me for the rest of her life while continuing to collect monthly alimony from her ex-husband since 2004. My husband and I have never discouraged or kept her from providing for herself. This lawsuit is frivolous, disgraceful and unimaginably hurtful. My husband never promised my mother anything and he would be so disappointed in her behavior and lack of empathy.”