Vanessa Bryant’s Mom Insists She Was ‘Wronged’ After Daughter Denies Lawsuit Accusations: ‘I’m Hurt’

In Sofia’s lawsuit, she claimed that she was a “longtime personal assistant and nanny” for Vanessa, her late husband, Kobe Bryant, and their daughters. Sofia insisted that, before his death, Kobe promised to “take care of [her financially” due to all of her years of help. However, after Kobe died, Vanessa did not live up to the promises that the NBA star made, according to Sofia’s lawsuit.

In a lengthy statement, which you can read in full at the bottom of this post, Vanessa denied her mothers claims. She vowed that Kobe “never promised [her] mother anything,” and said that the accusations made in the lawsuit were “unimaginably hurtful.” She also denied that Sofia served as a nanny to her kids, and explained that she just “watched [them] from time to time, as most grandparents do.” Vanessa also shut down Sofia’s claims that she left her in the cold, and said that she offered to provide Sofia monthly support as recently as September.

However, Sofia’s statement clearly tells a very different story. “She knows the truth and she knows I was their nanny,” Sofia continued. “She knows very well that she failed to pay me what I was owed. She also knows what it would have cost to hire a nanny for a high-profile family and the trust that would be involved in such employment. Now she denies it. Again, this is hurtful. Vanessa publicly claims that I am trying to extort her. This cannot be further from the truth. Again, all I want is what I worked for and nothing more.”

Sofia continued to insist that “promises were made” to her, and that “Vanessa cancelled and voided everything that [she] was entitled to.” She also vowed to “persevere” amidst the pair’s now-public battle. “I hope that my daughter changes course and will do what is right and give me what was promised to me,” Sofia concluded. “I also hope that Vanessa will stop preventing me from seeing and spending time with my grandchildren. She is using my grandchildren to punish me for exercising my rights. Although I had no choice to sue Vanessa, after all this is said and done, hopefully we can go back to having an amicable mother-daughter relationship. In the end, truth will prevail.”

Vanessa was widowed after Kobe’s death in a tragic helicopter crash in Jan. 2020. The pair’s second oldest daughter, Gianna Bryant, 13 also died in the crash. Now, she is raising the couple’s three other daughters (Natalia, 17, Bianka, 4, and Capri, 1) on her own. Read Vanessa’s full statement in response to Sofia’s lawsuit here:

“My mother is continuing to try and find ways to extort a financial windfall from our family. I have supported her for nearly twenty years, and she was never my or Kobe’s personal assistant, nor was she a nanny. I have always been a stay-at-home mother and my husband and I were our daughter’s full-time care givers. 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 ten 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. Contrary to what she’s saying, I haven’t left my children’s side since the accident except to visit the cemetery to make arrangements.

Earlier this year, I was looking for a new home for her and, a week later, she went on television and gave an interview disparaging our family and making false accusations while living rent-free in a gated apartment complex in Newport Coast. 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. 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 spiraled 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 and I have never discouraged or kept her from providing for herself.

This lawsuit is frivolous, disgraceful, and unimaginably hurtful. My husband never promised my mother anything, and he would be so disappointed in her behavior and lack of empathy.”