Vanessa Bryant breaks silence on death of husband, Kobe, and daughter Gianna

FAN Editor

Kobe Bryant and daughter Gianna Bryant attend a basketball game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Dallas Mavericks at Staples Center on December 29, 2019 in Los Angeles, California.

Allen Berezovsky | Getty Images

Kobe Bryant’s wife of nearly 20 years broke her silence Wednesday on the death of her husband and their 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, in a heartbreaking Instagram post.

The basketball star, 41, and his daughter died Sunday in a helicopter crash near Los Angeles that killed seven other people on their way to a basketball tournament in Thousand Oak, California. Vanessa Bryant said she and her three surviving daughters have been “completely devastated.”

“There aren’t enough words to describe our pain right now,” she wrote on Instagram. “I take comfort in knowing that Kobe and Gigi both knew that they were so deeply loved.”

Vanessa and Kobe Bryant married in 2001, and would have celebrated their 19th wedding anniversary in April.

She described the basketball legend as an adoring husband and father and called Gianna “a loving, thoughtful, and wonderful daughter” and amazing sister to their three other daughters, Natalia, Bianka and Capri.

“I’m not sure what our lives hold beyond today, and it’s impossible to imagine life without them,” she said. “But we wake up each day, trying to keep pushing because Kobe, and our baby girl, Gigi, are shining on us to light the way.”

Vanessa Bryant had been silent since the deadly crash, but she changed her Instagram account from private back to public earlier Wednesday. She also updated the profile picture to a photo of Kobe Bryant smiling at Gianna, with her arms around her father’s neck.

The picture of the father and daughter was snapped at a game in Toronto in 2016, the same year Kobe Bryant retired from the NBA.

The other people who died in the crash were Ara Zobayan, 49, the pilot; Christina Mauser, 38, an assistant basketball coach at Mamba Sports Academy; John Altobelli, 56, the head baseball coach at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, California; his wife, Keri Altobelli, 46; their daughter Alyssa Altobelli, 13; Payton Chester, 13, who played on the academy’s basketball teams, and her mother, Sarah Chester, 45.

Free America Network Articles

Leave a Reply

Next Post

Elon Musk says Tesla won't raise capital, will focus on lowering cost of batteries

Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk attends an opening ceremony for Tesla China-made Model Y program in Shanghai, China January 7, 2020. Aly Song | Reuters Tesla shares extended their rally on Wednesday, rising more than 11% after market hours following better-than-expected results for the last quarter of 2019. On an […]