Vanessa Bryant settles lawsuit with her mother
Her mother Sofia Laine alleged that Kobe Bryant had made promises to her that Vanessa reneged on
Vanessa Bryant and her estranged mother, Sofia Urbieta Laine have settled their differences if not personally, then at least financially. According to the Los Angeles Times, Laine filed a notice of unconditional settlement on Wednesday in Orange County Superior Court, with the expectation that the lawsuit would be dismissed in 45 days.
Terms of the settlement were not made public.
Months after the death of her son-in-law, Kobe Bryant, 41, and her granddaughter, Gianna Bryant, 13 in a helicopter crash in January 2020, Laine, 68, alleged that he had promised to take care of her “for the rest of her life.” She filed the lawsuit on Dec. 15, saying she’d provided the couple with hours of personal assistant and unpaid nanny work for their four daughters, Natalia, 18, Gianna, Bianka, 4, and Capri Kobe, 2.
At one point, a tearful Laine made her case on Spanish-language television, saying that Vanessa had kicked her out of the Bryant home and asked for the return of a vehicle. In a statement, Bryant denied that her mother had ever acted as a nanny and that her mother was faking poverty for sympathy.
“My husband and daughter passed away unexpectedly, and yet my mother had the audacity to do a television interview speaking negatively of me while shedding tears for a car and a house that were not in her name,” Vanessa said in a statement provided to Univision. “She has removed all her diamond jewelry, emptied the apartment I provided, and put away the furniture to make it look like she doesn’t have my support.”
The statement continued, “My husband never promised my mother anything, and he would be so disappointed in her behavior and lack of empathy.”
Vanessa also denied the claims that her mother ever worked for her.
“I have supported her for nearly 20 years, and was never my or Kobe’s personal assistant, nor was she a nanny.”
She continued, “In reality, she only occasionally babysat my older girls when they were toddlers. As of ten years ago, our kids were full-time students and athletes and I didn’t have another child until 2016.”
Laine, who Vanessa said still collects alimony from her ex-husband Stephen Laine, said that she was simply trying to have Vanessa honor the promises Kobe made.
“All I wanted is what I worked for. Vanessa, despite everything that I have been promised and done for her and the family, has attempted to sever all ties and renege on all obligations and agreements,” she said in the filing.
Though Vanessa has yet to comment publicly on the settlement and according to recent Instagram posts, is vacationing with her daughters in Capri, Italy, she did say to People magazine in an exclusive interview that her daughters give her the strength to go on.
“This pain is unimaginable [but] you just have to get up and push forward,” she told the outlet in March. “Lying in bed crying isn’t going to change the fact that my family will never be the same again. But getting out of bed and pushing forward is going to make the day better for my girls and for me. So that’s what I do.”
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