Vanessa Bryant returned to Instagram with another beautiful tribute to her late husband, Kobe Bryant, nearly two weeks after his tragic death. Vanessa’s February 5 post showed a handsome portrait of Kobe, 41, resting his head in his hand while flashing that famous smile at the camera. He’s wearing a sweatshirt emblazoned with the logo for the Mamba Sports Academy, where their daughter, Gianna “Gigi” Bryant played basketball. Gigi, 13, was also killed alongside her father in the January 25 helicopter crash. Vanessa, 37, captioned the pic, “#mybestfriend #theBestdaddy Miss you so much. #handsome #sweet #funny #silly #lovinghusband ❤️Miss you saying, ‘Bonjourno principessa/reina'”. Kobe, who was raised in Italy, was telling her “good morning princess/queen” in Italian. The couple share three more daughters: Natalia, 17, Bianka, 3, and Capri, 7 months. See the touching tribute to Kobe HERE.
She also posted a video on Instagram just minutes later from an old interview that Kobe did with Extra. In the video, which you can watch below, the interviewer asks Kobe a bunch of personal questions. His biggest fear? Bees and dog poop. His favorite song to sing in the shower? Adele‘s “Hello”. And his best friend? His wife, Vanessa. Following Kobe and Gigi’s deaths, Vanessa made her once-private Instagram public so she could share photos with loving fans. Three days before her Kobe tribute, she posted a gorgeous, heartbreaking painting of Gigi wearing LA Lakers gear while carrying a basketball. Her grieving mother captioned it, “Seeing my babygirl smile and happy again with a basketball 🏀 under her arm, wrapped in 💜💛love just warmed my heart. Thank you for this. @_vivalareina thank you!! My Gigi.❤️ #Mambacita.”
Prior to that, she shared one of the Staples Center tributes to Kobe and Gigi: their Mamba Academy and Lakers jerseys laid side-by-side: “There is no #24 without #2. ❤️#GirlDaddy #DaddysGirl #MyBabies ❤️❤️ #OurAngels #KobeandGigi,” Vanessa wrote.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B8MY4PTjPE8/
Kobe and Gigi were killed as their private helicopter crashed in Calabasas, California. The father and daughter were heading to Mamba Sports Academy for one of Gigi’s games. All others on board the helicopter were killed: basketball coach Christina Mauser, two of Gigi’s teenage teammates, Alyssa Altobelli and Payton Chester, the teammates’ parents, John Altobelli, Keri Altobelli and Sarah Chester, and the pilot, Ara Zaboyan.