Vanessa Bryant posts heartbreaking picture of her NBA superstar husband Kobe and their 13-year-old daughter Gianna embracing after they were killed in fiery helicopter crash
- Kobe Bryant’s wife Vanessa hasn’t spoken out publicly since her husband and their 13-year-old daughter Gianna were killed on Sunday
- Vanessa publicly acknowledged their shock deaths on Wednesday when she changed her Instagram profile photo
- Her profile now features a photo of Kobe and Gianna smiling and embracing
- Kobe and Vanessa, who married in 2001, have four children together
- Kobe, Gianna and seven others were killed on Sunday when their helicopter went down in a fiery crash in Southern California
Kobe Bryant’s wife has posted a heartbreaking photo of her late husband and daughter Gianna embracing after they were killed in a helicopter crash.
The former NBA superstar’s wife, Vanessa Bryant, has not spoken out since Kobe and their 13-year-old daughter tragically died on Sunday when his helicopter crashed in California.
Vanessa publicly acknowledged their shock deaths on Wednesday when she changed her Instagram profile photo to one of Kobe and Gianna embracing and smiling at each other.
Kobe Bryant’s wife changed her Instagram profile picture on Wednesday to feature her late husband and their 13-year-old daughter Gianna
Vanessa publicly acknowledged their shock deaths on Wednesday when she changed her Instagram profile photo to one of Kobe and Gianna embracing and smiling at each other
The photo was taken during an NBA all-star game in Toronto in 2016, which was among his last all-star appearances.
Vanessa has been trying to stay strong for their three surviving daughters but is devastated and can barely keep it together, according to sources.
‘She can’t finish a sentence without crying. But she is working very hard to pull it together for the other girls. She now has to be the strong one,’ the source told People.
Bryant met Vanessa back in 1999 when she was 17 and was working as a background model on a music video.
They got engaged six months later and married in 2001.
The couple have four children together: Gianna, 13, who was killed alongside her father, Natalia, 17, three-year-old Bianka and seven-month-old Capri.
The NBA legend and Vanessa married in April 2001 when he was 22 and she was 18. Together they have four children: Gianna (far right), 13, who was killed alongside her father, Natalia (left), 17, three-year-old Bianka (right, in pink), and seven-month-old Capri
Bryant, 41, and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna (pictured in November 2019) were both killed in the crash
Kobe, Gianna and seven others were killed on Sunday when their helicopter went down in a fiery crash in Southern California on their way to the 13-year-old’s basketball game.
Two of Gianna’s teammates were also on the helicopter with their parents.
Investigators and experts have since said the helicopter didn’t have a long-recommended warning system to alert the pilot he was too close to the ground.
It is not clear whether that system would have averted the foggy-weather crash.
The pilot, Ara Zobayan, had been climbing out of the clouds when the chartered aircraft banked left and began a sudden and terrifying 1,200-foot descent that lasted nearly a minute
The last of the victims’ bodies were recovered on Tuesday and coroner’s officials said the remains of Bryant, Zobayan and two other passengers were identified using fingerprints.
This image shows part of the wreckage of the helicopter crash near Calabasas, California
Dramatic pictures have revealed how Kobe Bryant’s helicopter exploded into a fireball after it plunged 1,000 feet into a hillside on Sunday, killing the NBA legend and eight others