Kobe’s wife Vanessa putting on brave face
Kobe Bryant and his wife Vanessa reportedly had a pact never to fly together in the same helicopter to ensure one of them would be around to take care of their children in the event of a fatal crash.
Vanessa Bryant’s worst fears were realised on Monday when the basketball legend and 13-yearold daughter Gianna, along with seven others, were killed in an accident in California.
Kobe had three other daughters – Natalia, 17, Bianka, 3, and seven-month-old Capri – with Vanessa, who while understandably ‘‘devastated’’, is determined to put on a brave face for her family.
‘‘She can hardly keep it together,’’ a family insider told PEOPLE magazine.
‘‘She can’t finish a sentence without crying. But she is working very hard to pull it together for the other girls. She now has to be the strong one.
‘‘Of course, you can never be prepared for this. Despite their ups and downs, [Vanessa and Kobe] were soulmates. She thought of him as her partner for life.’’
The couple wed in 2001, when she was just 18 and he was 22.
Vanessa stood by Kobe two years later when he was arrested and accused of sexual assault at a hotel in Colorado.
His accuser decided not to testify in a criminal court and the charges were dropped. However, a civil suit was settled and Bryant later acknowledged that the woman involved might legitimately have viewed his conduct in a different way from him.
The Bryants remained together and their relationship appeared to be as strong as ever following his retirement from the Los Angeles Lakers in 2016.
Kobe described Vanessa and his daughters as his ‘‘inspiration’’ after winning the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film in 2018, while last November he posted a tribute to his wife on Instagram in celebration of the day they first met.