NBA star Kobe Bryant and his fur-clad wife, Vanessa, left the Warner Brothers-InStyle Golden Globes celebration in Hollywood on Sunday holding hands and grinning. Longtime Bryant supporter Jessie Jameson,
who took a snapshot of the two that evening outside the event, exclaimed,”It’s so lovely to see them together again.” “They should be together more often.” While many social-media outlets appeared stunned last week by the news that the Los
Angeles Lakers star and his wife had dropped their divorce action, those close to the couple say this was always the inevitable end for the two. Tongues were wagging in December 2011, when Vanessa Bryant filed for divorce after
10 years of marriage to the 34-year-old superstar shooting guard. She cited irreconcilable differences, but various news reports also pointed to Bryant’s alleged extramarital affairs, including with ar the years.
Playboy model as well as with one of the producers of the Kardashians’ reality show. The wives of other NBA players were said to have informed Vanessa of her husband’s relationships with several women ove
“Vanessa isn’t the warmest person or the nicest one,” says one former Lakers wife. “I think we enjoyed telling her about his affairs whenever we could.” In 2003 Bryant was charged with sexually assaulting an employee at a Colorado hotel.
He denied the allegations, and charges were dropped after the woman refused to testify. But friends close to the couple say his roving eye kept roving. “Anyone with sense would have shut it down after the mess he encountered in Colorado,”
says one NBA player. “But Kobe kept it going, convinced he was above it all. Many players cheat, but most don’t get charged with sexual assault.” Given their young ages upon marriage (he was 22 and she was 18)
and the pressure of living under the bright spotlight of Hollywood, sources claim the two were destined to confront enormous odds. However, some of the very characteristics that would make their
relationship improbable also contribute to the reason they are reuniting at this time. Bryant is a loner, often described by associates as detached from his Lakers teammates and unable or unwilling to form close relationships with the people around him.
(For his first tweet on Twitter earlier this year Bryant wrote with some self-knowedge: “The antisocial has become social.” (@kobebryant)) Vanessa is said to be equally distant, with few close personal friends as well. After the two met
