Vanessa Bryant’s mother is allegedly demanding $5 million from the Bryant family.
Responding to the lawsuit, Vanessa calls it “frivolous, disgraceful and unimaginably hurtful.”
via Complex:
Court documents for the California lawsuit show that Sofia Laine is seeking financial support from her daughter, alleging that she worked as an unpaid and “longtime personal assistant and nanny” for the family, according to People. Laine also claims that prior to Kobe Bryant’s death on Jan. 26, he had “promised to take care of” the 68-year-old “for the rest of her life.”
The court docs continue, “Unfortunately, Kobe Bryant’s promises did not see the light of day as he is now deceased, and Vanessa Bryant took each and every step she could to void and cancel all of Kobe Bryant’s promises made to [Laine]. Vanessa Bryant did not intend to honor any of the Bryants’ representations, agreements and promises at any stage.”
Vanessa says that isn’t true, telling the outlet her mother is “continuing to try and find ways to extort a financial windfall from our family.”
Bryant continued, “I have supported her for nearly 20 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 daughters’ full-time caregivers.”
Bryant is a mother to daughters Natalia, 17, Bianka, 4, and Capri Kobe, 18 months. Her 13-year-old daughter Gianna also died in the same helicopter crash as Kobe and seven other victims.
“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,” Bryant told People in her statement. “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,” Vanessa claims. “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 10 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.”
She adds, “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.”
For a mother to file a lawsuit against her own daughter is problematic itself. Taking into account what Vanessa and her family has already gone through this year — it’s beyond problematic. It’s borderline evil.
