Vanessa Bryant has had a lot of obstacles to overcome since the passing of her husband Kobe Bryant. The widow and mother has had to face several legal issues that have kept her name in the headlines despite her just wanting to grieve in peace. Most recently she is being asked to show proof that she suffered emotional distress from seeing pictures of her husband’s body following the crash that claimed his life.
LA County is demanding Bryant submit a Psychiatric Exam to prove the leaked images of the crash site have indeed impacted the families of Bryant and the other victims. A first responder took and circulated pictures of the scene shortly after Kobe and others perished a helicopter crash. The families sued shortly after and have been battling in court ever since. According to reports, “The county is trying to prove the point that the trauma claimed by Bryant’s family came from the tragedy itself, rather than the photos shared by county staff.”
Lawyers on Bryant’s side dismiss these claims and have gone on record to say they feel the County is trying to defend its employees instead of holding them accountable for such horrible decisions. LA County has accused Bryant of going “too far” with her suit against the city. In the legal documents presented, the County says Bryant and her team are using them for “tens of millions of dollars based solely on their claimed ‘severe emotional distress.'” According to LA County, “its employees did not publicly disseminate any accident site photos.”
This is one of several battles Vanessa Bryant has had to fight since losing Kobe. She took Nike to task after someone managed to get their hands on an unreleased sneaker she had designed with the company in honor of her husband and daughter. She and Nike never decided to release it, but somehow someone got hold of a prototype and was selling it online. “The ‘Mambacita’ shoes are NOT approved for sale. I wanted it to be sold to honor my daughter with ALL of the proceeds benefiting our @mambamambacitasports foundation, but I did not re-sign the Nike contract and decided not to sell these shoes,” she said in a statement. She goes on to say that she did not even have a pair of the sneakers and hoped Nike did not sell it without her approval.
Vanessa Bryant has also been in court fighting her own mother. The pair had a falling out over unpaid wages. Her mother, Sofia Laine, was reportedly promised a salary to help Vanessa and Kobe with their children and claims to have not received the money. Vanessa Bryant fired back, listing the years of gifts and houses they gave Laine as compensation. Laine also lived with the couple for free in their home and several other properties they owned. Laine said that Kobe “promised to take care of” her for the rest of her life. Laine feared that with Kobe’s passing, her daughter would not live out his promise and decided it would be better to sue.
In addition to her battles in court, she’s also had to defend herself in public. Last year she called out Meek Mill for a tasteless reference to her husband’s crash in an unreleased song. “Dear @meekmill, I find this line to be extremely insensitive and disrespectful. Period. I am not familiar with any of your music, but I believe you can do better than this,” she said in an IG story. Meek said via Twitter that he did eventually apologize to Vanessa in private.
