Vanessa Bryant issued a message following the death of her father-in-law, Joe Bryant, reported this Tuesday, July 16.
The widow of Kobe Bryant, who died along with his daughter Gianna in a helicopter crash in January 2020, took to her Instagram account to express her feelings.
“We send our condolences upon hearing the news of my father-in-law’s death,” he initially wrote.
“We were hoping things would be different,” he admitted. “Although the moments we spent together were few, it was always sweet and pleasant to be with him.”
“Kobe loved him very much. Our prayers are with the family,” the businesswoman concluded her brief statement.
Fran Dunphy, a coach at Joe’s alma mater, La Salle University, told the Philadelphia Inquirer that he recently suffered a major stroke.
Kobe Bryant’s father did not love Vanessa because of her Mexican roots
Vanessa Bryant’s words reignited the problems she allegedly had in the past with Joe Bryant and his wife, Pamela.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Kobe Bryant’s parents maintained good relations with him until the appearance of the former model.
People reports that the athlete and the then-student met in 1999. Soon after, they began a romance and became engaged in May 2000.
They married in April 2001, but the Lakers legend’s parents did not attend the wedding, at St. Edward the Confessor Catholic Church.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Kobe “quietly confirmed” in April 2003 that “Joe is uncomfortable with Vanessa, a Latina, not being African-American and uncomfortable with his selfless devotion to her.”
The basketball talent acknowledged, the media explains, that since he asked the young woman to marry him there was “a family rift that tested his strength.”
Vanessa was born in Los Angeles, but her mother, Sofía Laine Urbieta, and her father, who has not been in her life since she was a baby, are Mexican.
“Intensive” dynamic between Kobe, his parents and Vanessa
The Sun points out that Joe and Pamela skipping Kobe and Vanessa’s wedding led to a two-year estrangement.
The arguments ended after the birth of the couple’s first daughter, Natalia, in 2003, according to a source who spoke to the newspaper in September 2020.
“It’s been no secret that there’s been distance between Vanessa and her parents after a series of arguments when they were dating, including their absence from her wedding,” the insider said.
“That tense dynamic never really changed, and Kobe attempted some reconciliations, but then had his own conflicts and disagreements with them,” he added.
The basketball player fell out with Joe and Pamela in 2013 when they tried to auction off personal items from his high school days and even a pair of championship rings he won.
Source: univision

Jason Root is a writer at Gossipify, known for his in-depth coverage of famous people in entertainment, sports, and politics. He has a passion for uncovering the stories behind the headlines and bringing readers an inside look at the lives of the famous. He has been writing for Gossipify for several years and has a degree in Journalism from UC Berkeley.