Kobe Bryant’s widow goes to war with mom over 'hurtful' lawsuit

Kobe Bryant’s widow has blasted her mother for filing a “hurtful” lawsuit against her weeks before the first anniversary of her husband and daughter’s helicopter crash deaths.

Vanessa Bryant has accused Sofia Laine of trying to “extort a financial windfall” from her family in a suit she filed in California on Tuesday.

In the legal documents, Laine claims she worked as an unpaid “personal assistant and nanny” for the family, and before her son-in-law’s death in January, he had promised to take care of her “for the rest of her life”.

“Unfortunately, Kobe Bryant’s promises did not see the light of day as he is now deceased, and Vanessa Bryant took each and every step she could to void and cancel all of Kobe Bryant’s promises made to (Laine),” the complaint reads. “Vanessa Bryant did not intend to honour any of the Bryants’ representations, agreements and promises at any stage.”

Vanessa has fired back at her mum in a new statement, obtained by People magazine, claiming Laine is “continuing to try and find ways to extort a financial windfall from our family”.

“I have supported her for nearly 20 years, and she was never my or Kobe’s personal assistant, nor was she a nanny,” says Vanessa. “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. Her claims are obviously false but I still tried, repeatedly, to work things out with my mother.”

Vanessa claims this isn’t the first time her mum has publicly attacked her, revealing Laine disparaged her during a TV interview earlier this year, while she was “looking for a new home for her”.

“Even after that betrayal, I was willing to provide my mother with monthly support for the rest of her life and that wasn’t good enough,” Bryant adds. “She instead contacted me through intermediaries (contrary to what she claims, my phone number hasn’t changed) and demanded $5 million, a house and a Mercedes SUV. Because I did not give in to her hurtful threats and monetary requests, she has spiralled out of control and is making false and absurd claims.

“(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 never promised my mother anything and he would be so disappointed in her behaviour and lack of empathy.”