Vanessa Bryant Fires Back At Mom, Sofia Laine, For ‘Audacity’ To Air Family Drama
Vanessa Bryant has called out her mother for having the “audacity” to go public with accusations that she kicked her out of her home — saying that the matriarch has not been “emotionally supportive” as she grieved her husband, NBA star Kobe Bryant, and daughter.
Vanessa, 38, slammed her mother, Sofia Urbieta Laine, for making “painful” claims about their relationship in a sitdown interview Monday with Univision reporter Dave Valadez on the program “El Gorda y La Flaca.”
Laine accused her daughter of forcing her out of where she was living in Irvine, California, and insisting that she return the car she used.
“She told me, ‘I need you to get out of this house.’ She also told me that she wanted her car and she wants it now,” Laine said in Spanish, as she wiped away tears.
But the widow of the former Los Angeles Laker claimed that her mother was playing down the help that she got from her.
“My husband and daughter passed away unexpectedly, and yet my mother had the audacity to do a television interview speaking negatively of me while shedding tears for a car and a house that were not in her name,” Vanessa said in a statement to the program.
“She has removed all her diamond jewelry, emptied the apartment I provided, and put away the furniture to make it look like she doesn’t have my support. My husband and I have supported her financially for the past 20 years, and continue to do so, in addition to her monthly alimony.”
She added that Laine “has not been physically present or emotionally supportive of my daughters or me” since the death of her 41-year-old husband and 13-year-old daughter Gianna in a helicopter crash in January in Calabasas, California.
“Now I see what is most important to my mother and it’s more than painful,” she said. “I hope that everything that is coming out about our personal relationship ends here.”
It’s not clear what caused the apparent rift between the mother and daughter, as Laine has been previously photographed with her daughter at family holidays and courtside at Kobe’s basketball games.
Laine claimed that she didn’t know why she was sent packing from the home, but acknowledged that the property was in the name of Erika Williams, who was named the legal guardian to represent two of Vanessa’s daughters, Natalia and Bianka, in their father’s trust, TMZ reported.
