Vanessa Bryant Sends Message to Late Husband Kobe Bryant

Vanessa Bryant will love Kobe Bryant always and forever. On what would’ve been the basketball legend’s 45th birthday, Vanessa shared a touching tribute in his honor on social media. Alongside a series of photos featuring the couple throughout the years shared to Instagram Aug. 23, she wrote, “Happy birthday, baby. I love you always & forever.”

The 41-year-old’s carousel of photos included a glimpse of the pair side-by-side during various occasions, including when Kobe won an Academy Award in 2018 for Best Animated Short Film.

Her dedication to the NBA star comes a little more than three years after he and their 13-year-old daughter Gianna “Gigi” Bryant died in a tragic January 2020 helicopter crash.

Since then, Vanessa—who is also mom to Natalia, 20, Bianka, 6, and Capri, 4—has made sure to keep her husband close, especially during important milestones. In fact, her tribute comes just one day after Vanessa sent her eldest daughter a floral bouquet, signed by Kobe, to mark the first day of Natalia’s junior year at the University of Southern California.

Not to mention, Vanessa has also kept Kobe’s legacy close to her chest during notable occasions, with the most recent being for one of Taylor Swift’s concerts in Los Angeles
In fact, Vanessa included a large silkscreen of Kobe and the pop star on the back of her Eras Tour jacket, which she donned during the singer’s Aug. 3 concert at SoFi Stadium.

The image, as seen in photos posted on her Instagram Stories, was taken in 2015 when Kobe helped honor Taylor for setting the record for most sold-out shows at Staples Center. But that’s not all, as Vanessa also had a heart-shaped patch sporting the words “say you’ll remember me” (a lyric from Taylor’s song “Wildest Dreams”) sewn onto the front of her jacket.

After learning of the tragedy that killed Kobe, Gigi and seven others, the Grammy winner took to social media to pay tribute at the time.

“My heart is in pieces hearing the news of this unimaginable tragedy,” Taylor wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, in January 2020. “I can’t fathom what the families are going through. Kobe meant so much to me and to us all. Sending my prayers, love, and endless condolences to Vanessa and the family and anyone who lost someone on that flight

Vanessa Bryant is suing authorities over Kobe death crash pics

Vanessa Bryant should undergo a psychiatric evaluation of the emotional distress she faced after the death of her husband Kobe Bryant, said Los Angeles county officials, amid an ongoing lawsuit filed by her. Ms Bryant is fighting a legal battle against the city’s officials over leaked photos of the tragic 2020 helicopter crash that killed the NBA superstar and their 13-year-old daughter.

The county argued on Friday that Ms Bryant and other plaintiffs should undergo a psychiatric test to determine whether their emotional distress was caused by the leaked photos or the actual crash itself, reported CNN.
An attorney for Bryant declined to discuss the case on the record. An attorney representing Los Angeles County did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The filing is the latest development in the legal battle between Bryant and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department that began after at least eight sheriff’s deputies took unauthorized photos of the crash scene, which were widely circulated among law enforcement, deputies’ friends and family members, and some strangers.

Kobe Bryant was aboard a helicopter on Jan. 26, 2020, when it flew through cloudy conditions and crashed into a hillside near Calabasas, Calif., killing him and the eight others on board. Several sheriff’s deputies who arrived at the scene “pulled out their cellphones and snapped photos of the dead children, parents and coaches,” according to Vanessa Bryant’s lawsuit filed in September 2020.
After an internal investigation, the Los Angeles County Fire Department moved to fire two employees and suspend a third after it found that the employees took crash-site photos and shared them with their wives and girlfriends, according to court filings and media reports. It was not clear whether they had been fired. Bryant’s lawsuit does not name the fire department as a co-defendant.

The case is scheduled to go to trial in February and is at least the fourth legal action to arise from the crash.

Bryant settled a wrongful-death suit with the helicopter operator and a claim from her mother, Sofia Urbieta Laine, who said she was not paid for years of work as a nanny and assistant to her daughter’s family, despite assurances from Kobe Bryant that she would be supported financially. A Los Angeles County fire captain filed a lawsuit saying the county retaliated against him by demoting him after the crash.