Widow of NBA star Kobe Bryant, Vanessa Bryant is a prominent benefactor in the United States. A total of $600,000,000 is in Vanessa Bryant’s bank account. The pair started their own scholarship foundation in 2007 to aid minority college students all around the world. Bryant is president and CEO of Granity Studios and also heads the Mamba & Mambacita Sports Foundation.
Kobe and Vanessa first crossed paths while she was performing in a music video as a background dancer. At the time, she was only 17 years old. Kobe, at 21 years old, was recording his first album in a studio. Within six months of their first date, they were engaged. As a high school senior, Laine was already married off when she and her husband tied the knot.
Kobe’s family, including his mother, father, agent, and sisters, did not attend the ceremony since they did not approve of his choice to marry someone so much older than him. Their wedding was place on April 18, 2001, at St. Edward the Confessor Catholic Church in Dana Point, California. It took two years for Kobe to reconcile with his mom and dad after that.
In 2003, when Vanessa gave birth to their first child, things finally warmed up between them. Later, they had four daughters, all born to the couple. Vanessa filed for divorce in December 2011, citing insurmountable differences. Kobe was valued approximately $200 million when she filed. They didn’t even bother with a prenup.
The fact that Vanessa waited only a few months after their 10-year wedding anniversary to apply for divorce is interesting (though it ultimately didn’t matter because they did not split). In California, if a couple was married for more than ten years, the surviving spouse is entitled to spousal maintenance indefinitely, rather than for a set number of years.
And she did so just a few months after Kobe had re-signed his $84 million contract. They called off the divorce two years later after announcing their reconciliation. On January 26, 2020, tragically, Kobe Bryant and one of the couple’s daughters were killed in a helicopter crash. At age 41, Kobe was an NBA legend.
Vanessa Bryant Early Life
Los Angeles, California is where Vanessa Laine’s birth took place on May 5th, 1982. Vanessa Cornejo Urbieta was her given name. She was born in Mexico and her older sibling’s name is Sophie. Bryant’s parents divorced when she was young, and her mom remarried a man named Stephen Laine. After she got married, Bryant legally changed her name to Vanessa Laine. She attended Marina High School and lived with her step-grandfather Robert Laine in Huntington Beach.
Vanessa Bryant Career Beginnings
During a hip hop performance at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre in August of 1999, Bryant and her friend Rowena were approached by a firm offering them work as music video extras. Bryant then started making cameos in music videos for singers like Snoop Dogg and Krayzie Bone. Bryant met her future husband Kobe while filming the music video for “G’d Up” by Tha Eastsidaz. Their romance quickly became the subject of intense media attention, which interfered with Vanessa’s senior year of high school. She was able to graduate early by studying on her own time and completing her final year at home.
Vanessa Bryant Marriage to Kobe Bryant
went down on one knee and proposed to Kobe Bryant just six months after their first date. The wedding took place in the spring of 2001 at Dana Point, California. In the early months of 2003, they welcomed their first child, a daughter named Natalia. A 19-year-old hotel worker at the hotel where Kobe Bryant was staying accused him of sexual assault that summer. Vanessa supported him, but she also admitted he was an adulterer. A few days later, Kobe presented her with an eight-carat purple diamond ring that cost $4 million.
Especially when she made allegations that Los Angeles Lakers player Karl Malone had behaved improperly against her, Vanessa was the target of extensive tabloid and other media coverage throughout the early years of their marriage. She was praised, though, for speaking out against the normalisation of sexual promiscuity in the NBA. A miscarriage due to an ectopic pregnancy that Vanessa suffered in 2005 gained her even more notoriety. The following year, she and Kobe welcomed Gianna, their second daughter. Vanessa and her husband called off their divorce in early 2013 after she filed for divorce from him in December 2011 citing irreconcilable differences. As of December 2016, the Bryants also had a third daughter named Bianka. Capri is the fourth and youngest child of the couple.
Vanessa Bryant Philanthropy
In 2007, the Bryants launched the VIVO Foundation, later rebranded the Kobe and Vanessa Bryant Foundation. It is a worldwide organisation with the goal of helping underprivileged youngsters gain access to higher education by funding college scholarships for those from minority groups. Among the Bryants’ other collaborative charitable endeavours is their role as founding benefactors to Washington, DC’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Working solo, Vanessa Bryant has teamed with the non-profit group Baby2Baby to benefit disadvantaged women and children. In the latter part of 2021, she was honoured with a philanthropic award from the group. Bryant’s other major humanitarian initiatives include the Mamba and Mambacita Sports Foundation, which was formed by her husband to support kid athletes in need. She used the group to debut a Gianna-themed apparel line.
Vanessa Bryant Granity Studios
Bryant also runs the multimedia production firm her husband started in 2013 under the name Granity Studios, where she holds the position of president and chief executive officer. Notable works from Granity Studios include the young adult novel series Wizenard and Epoca, both written by Kobe Bryant, and the animated short film “Dear Basketball,” which won an Academy Award in 2017.
Vanessa Bryant Kobe Bryant Death and Lawsuit
Kobe Bryant and his second-oldest daughter Gianna were died in a helicopter accident in Calabasas, California, in January of 2020. Vanessa filed a lawsuit against Los Angeles County, claiming invasion of privacy and negligence in connection with the distribution of photographs taken at the scene of the collision. She was awarded $16 million in August of 2022 as a result of the lawsuit. Vanessa will be giving the money to the Mamba and Mambacita Sports Foundation.
