Vanessa Bryant denies she has evicted her mom and slams her ‘audacity’ after Kobe’s death

Vanessa Bryant has denied that she kicked her mom out of her home and attacked her for having the ‘audacity’ to make these claims in a TV interview while she is grieving the loss of her husband Kobe and their daughter Gianna. 

The widow of NBA star Kobe was forced to defend herself after her mother Sofia Laine gave an explosive interview to Univision airing Monday where she wept that her daughter had evicted her and stripped her of some of her belongings.  

Bryant blasted Laine for ‘shedding tears for a car and a house that were not in her name’ while she continues to mourn for Kobe and 13-year-old Gianna, who both died in a tragic California helicopter crash back in January. 

She accused her mom of hiding her diamonds and furniture ‘to make it look like she doesn’t have my support’ and slammed her for proving what is ‘most important’ to her. 

Bryant also dismissed insider reports that her mom has been her ‘rock’ in recent months saying ‘she has not been physically present or emotionally supportive’ of her or her three other children as they adjust to life without Kobe and Gianna. 

‘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,’ Bryant said in a statement to the TV show.

‘She has removed all her diamond jewellery, emptied the apartment I provided, and put away the furniture to make it look like she doesn’t have my support.’

Bryant went on to say that she and Kobe have supported her mom for decades and blasted her public accusations ‘painful’.

‘My husband and I have supported her financially for the past 20 years, and continue to do so, in addition to her monthly alimony,’ said Bryant. 

She continued: ‘Contrary to previous reports, she has not been physically present or emotionally supportive of my daughters and me after my husband and daughter passed away.

‘Now I see what is most important to my mother and it’s more than painful. I hope that everything that is coming out about our personal relationship ends here.’ 

Laine hit out at her daughter in the Univision interview Monday, alleging she demanded she ‘get out of this house’ and immediately return a vehicle.

‘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 told interviewer Dave Valadez through tears on the Spanish language show ‘El Gorda y La Flaca.’  

It is not clear what may have caused the apparent rift between Bryant and her mom, who was spotted regularly with the family when Kobe and Gianna were alive.  

Laine was last pictured with Vanessa in a Thanksgiving family photo that was posted on Kobe’s Instagram account last November.

The family owns multiple properties on the Newport Coast and Sofia used to live in one until it was sold in 2013.

After the basketball legend’s death, a source told Us Weekly that Laine was helping her daughter and grandchildren – Natalia, 17, Bianka, 3, and Capri, 7 months.

‘[Vanessa] is incredibly close to her mom and her mom has been her rock throughout the past few weeks,’ the insider said. 

‘Her mom is always with her and the girls and she’s been keeping Vanessa strong and she’s the weight of her support system.’ 

Laine also appeared to be very close to her son-in-law Kobe and was waiting outside his locker room in 2015 after he played his last game.

Their relationship may have been even more special because Kobe admitted he didn’t get along with his own parents.

It’s not clear how Vanessa and her mother’s relationship was at Kobe’s memorial in February. 

Singer Beyonce was seen comforting the widow at the LA Lakers’ home of the Staples Center in Los Angeles during the service.

It’s unclear where Laine – who also has a daughter named Sophie Laine – could be living now.

The grandmother divorced Vanessa’s stepfather in 2003 after 13 years of marriage on claims that he cheated. He denied the claims.

In 2011 when Vanessa and Kobe almost split over infidelity matters, Vanessa’s estranged stepfather – whose last name she took as a child – compared her to her mother.

‘Her mother taught her well to wait for the 10-year mark,’ Stephen Laine said about their 10-year union. 

‘In California, it’s considered a long term marriage and then she gets paid for life or until she remarries… just like her mother is doing to me. I have to pay her mom $1,800 every month and clearly, they don’t need it.’   

The public spat between the mom and daughter comes as Bryant filed a lawsuit against the LA County Sheriff’s department over graphic photos allegedly taken by deputies at the scene of the crash that killed Kobe and Gianna.  

Kobe, 41, and Gianna died in a Calabasas, California helicopter crash along with seven other passengers and a pilot on January 26. 

The other victims were longtime Orange Coast College baseball coach, John Altobelli, his wife Keri, their daughter Alyssa, assistant basketball coach at the Mamba Sports Academy Christina Mauser, Sarah Chester, 45, and her daughter, Payton, 13, and pilot Ara Zobayan, 50.