Vanessa Bryant has opened up about the moment she learned about Kobe and Gianna’s tragic passing.
The 39-year-old made the revelation in a deposition for the lawsuit she has filed against Los Angeles County,
which she said had leaked photos of the gruesome crash scene between several colleagues and a bartender.
Breaking News: Vanessa Bryant describes in a newly public deposition how she learned her husband, Kobe Bryant, and daughter died. She is suing Los Angeles County.https://t.co/eqlf6neyTc
— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 23, 2021
The crash on January 26, 2020, devastated Vanessa to the core, but after speaking with LA Sheriff Alex Villanueva, she was assured that photos of the scene where the crash occurred would be kept sacred.
But that was far from the case as just days after Kobe and Gianna’s death had photos of their bodies had reportedly been passed around by the LA County.
Vanessa shared that she first learned about the horrific accident when her assistant had knocked on her door at around 11:30 am, telling her there had been a crash.
The incident took place at 9:45 am, so just under two hours before Vanessa would be informed on what had occurred as Kobe and Gigi passed over Calabasas, CA in a helicopter on board with seven other people.
“She told me that there was an accident and that there were five survivors,” she recalled in her deposition.
“And I asked her if Gianna and Kobe were okay. And she said she wasn’t sure. She didn’t know.”
Vanessa later learned that there were, in fact, no survivors, having at first assumed that Kobe and Gianna escaped any injuries.
It was not long after when Vanessa began ringing Kobe’s phone, but to avail. She then mentioned how an outpouring amount of notifications
were sent her way, with people sharing their condolences for her husband and daughter’s passing. “I was trying to call my husband back,
and all these notifications started popping up on my phone, saying RIP Kobe. RIP Kobe. RIP Kobe,” she added.
Vanessa was so distraught that she was adamant about taking a helicopter to the crash site immediately.
That wasn’t possible, though, as weather conditions were so bad that no pilots were permitted to fly at the time.
Vanessa is suing the LA County for recklessly sharing photos of the crash to their colleagues and friends “as if they were animals on the street.”
