Vanessa Bryant says Evan Rachel Wood’s comments are ‘disturbing’
'An accusation doesn't make someone guilty,' said Vanessa Bryant
Vanessa Bryant publicly called out actress Evan Rachel Wood who called her late husband Kobe Bryant a “rapist” after the news of his tragic death on Jan. 26, 2020.
In her Instagram stories on Saturday, Bryant tagged Wood with a screenshot of the now-deleted tweet.
“This just came to my attention. Your false, insensitive, defamatory, and slanderous tweet on 1/26/20 is vile and disturbing, to say the least. Behavior like this is part of the reason why innocent Black men to jail for crimes they didn’t commit,” Bryant said to Wood. “An accusation doesn’t make someone guilty. YOU DON’T KNOW THE FACTS OF THE CASE.”
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On Jan. 26, 2020, Wood said, “I am heartbroken for Kobe’s family. He was a sports hero. He was also a rapist. And all of these truths can exist simultaneously.”
Wood’s comments brought attention to Kobe’s 2003 case where he was charged for allegedly sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman. The case was later dropped by prosecutors due to the accuser’s refusal to testify and a lawsuit filed against Bryant was settled.
In the following slide of her post, Bryant reiterated the same message, tagging film producer Abigail Disney with a screenshot of her tweet which also referred to the late NBA legend as a “rapist.”
Disney tweeted an article from The Washington Post three days following Kobe Bryant’s death with the message, “I haven’t said anything about Kobe so far because I felt some time needed to pass before weighing in. But yes, it’s time for the sledgehammer to come down. The man was a rapist. Deal with it.”
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Bryant continued posting screenshots of people who responded to both Wood and Disney’s comments including actress Kyla Pratt, whom she thanked.
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