Late on Sunday, January 26, 2020, an unexpected news shocked the whole world: Kobe Bryant, media star and American basketball star, died in a helicopter accident in Calabasas, a neighborhood of Los Angeles (California, USA). ).
In the same plane in which he flew, was one of his daughters, Gianna Maria Onore, 13, who became another of the fatal victims of the accident.
Two other families and the pilot also perished on the spot.
Twelve months later, the widow of the great basketball star keeps several judicial fronts open: against the company that owns the helicopter, against whom he released some photos of the accident, against his own mother and for the economic losses that the death of her husband implies.
The accident caused a huge
global
shock
.
Bryant, who died at the age of 41, orphaned the family he had created with his wife, Vanessa, whom he had married two decades earlier, when she was 17 years old and he, 20, was already a Los Angeles Lakers player .
Together they had had four girls: Natalia;
Gianna, 13-year-old basketball promise who passed away with her father;
Bianka, four, and Capri Kobe, born just seven months before the accident and affectionately nicknamed Coco.
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Less than a month after the accident, he sued the company that owned the helicopter where the Bryants were traveling for wrongful death.
In addition, in March he complained about the dissemination of photos of the accident, in what he considered a lack of respect for his right to privacy.
Hence, last September he also decided to file a lawsuit against the
Los Angeles
sheriff
for that cause.
Months earlier, in June, it became known that she was going to sue for the money her family had lost following the untimely death of her husband.
"Vanessa Bryant seeks economic damages, non-economic damages, punitive damages, prejudice interests and other relief measures that the Court deems fair and appropriate," that lawsuit read.
It is estimated that he has asked for 200 million dollars (165 million euros).
The economic damages can be substantial, but it is still necessary for a judge to determine it.
What has been known, in part, is the inheritance that belongs to the family.
According to the economic publication
Forbes
, Kobe Bryant's assets amounted to 600 million dollars, about 550 million euros.
Throughout his career, the player had made a fortune thanks to his income as a basketball player, but above all to the associations with big brands (from Nike to Coca-Cola to Mercedes-Benz), to the books he wrote and also to your successful investments.
For example, one of its investment companies promoted the creation of Epic Games, the company that gave life to the successful video game Fortnite.
The inheritance is clear for the widow and for the basketball player's two eldest daughters, but not so much for the youngest, who had not been included in the athlete's will and could be left out of the cast.
As if that was not enough, Vanessa Bryant has also received her own demands, and in this case painful: that of her mother.
Sofia Laine, that is her name, affirms that her daughter has abandoned her, when her deceased son-in-law had promised that he would always take care of her, and accuses her of throwing her out of the house that the player bought her.
Laine assures that she was the marriage's personal assistant and babysitter for her daughters, something that Vanessa denies.
In fact, he accuses her of "financially extorting his family."
"I have supported her for 20 years and she was never a personal assistant or a nanny," he said in a statement in December.
“This lawsuit is frivolous, miserable, and unimaginably painful.
My husband never promised anything to my mother and I would be very disappointed in her behavior and lack of empathy, ”she recounted.
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This year has been tough for the Bryant women.
Just a month ago Natalia, the oldest of the girls, turned 18, as she showed on her Instagram account.
An account where he often poses with his little sisters and with his mother, and where he also pays frequent tributes to the relatives he lost.
In these months there has been something like a new addition that has shed light on the family.
Elisabet Gianna Gasol is the first daughter of Pau Gasol and his wife, Catherine McDonnell.
The girl has received as a middle name that of the deceased daughter of the Bryants, with whom she had a very close relationship, so much so that the little girls of the marriage refer to him as “Uncle Pau”.
Vanessa is her godmother;
in fact, he recently posted a photo with the little girl: "My goddaughter Ellie Gianna," it said.
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A post shared by Vanessa Bryant 🦋 (@vanessabryant)
These are the most hopeful and happy images of Vanessa after a black year.
She herself reported her pain on her social networks.
“We are completely devastated by the sudden loss of my loving husband, Kobe, the amazing father of our children;
and my beautiful and sweet Gianna, a loving, caring and wonderful daughter, and an incredible sister to Natalia, Bianka and Capri ”, she said then.
In these months Vanessa has found in her eldest daughter her great support, and has also focused on raising the two youngest, still very small and who require part of her attention and for which she organizes trips and large full birthday parties of family and friends.
After the intimate funeral, he has celebrated and paid tributes to his family, large and small: from those made by the Lakers at the Staples Center (just before the outbreak of the coronavirus) to the removal of shirts and the awards created in his name to the tattoo with the names of the whole family that has been made along the foot.
And, as she and her daughters continue to show their window to the world on their social networks, they pay tribute to them day after day.
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A post shared by Vanessa Bryant 🦋 (@vanessabryant)