Who is Sofia Laine?
Sofia Laine is the mother of Vanessa Bryant, the grieving widow of Kobe Bryant, the famous National Basketball Association (NBA) player; she came to the limelight recently when she filed a lawsuit against her daughter for financial support.
Sofia Laine Wiki: Age, Life, Career
Sofia Urbieta Laine was born on 4 October 1952, in the USA. Unfortunately, there is no information about Sofia’s early life nor her education. All that is known is that she studied to become a schoolteacher, but she hasn’t stated which educational institutions she attended.
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She was a shipping clerk at an electronics company. She has been married twice and divorced two times. Sofia has two children, Sophie, who is the older of the two, and Vanessa. Her husband and Vanessa’s father left the family when Vanessa was three years old, and Sofia held two jobs just to support the girls and herself. In 1990, she remarried to Stephen Laine, and though he never adopted Vanessa and Sophie, they took Stephen’s surname in 2000. Unfortunately, Sofia and Stephen divorced in 2002 as they couldn’t solve their bankruptcy issues, since Stephen filed for bankruptcy in 2000.
When Vanessa met Bryant she was still in high school and just 17 years old, Sofia supported their romance and encouraged them to go forward, in contrast to Kobe’s parents who were against their relationship, saying she was too young, and not African-American. Kobe’s parents and siblings didn’t even attend the wedding ceremony, which resulted in an estrangement that lasted two years. However, all differences were erased when Vanessa gave birth to her first child, Natalia.
Sofia hurt her back and couldn’t work her job at an electronics company, so began helping her daughter with her children, becoming the nanny of the Bryant family.
However, according to Vanessa’s words, she never really helped her out.
Mother-Daughter Lawsuit
Following Sofia’s split from Stephen, she started living with Vanessa, and continued to do so for the next 20 years. She assumed the role of a supportive mother and a dear mother-in-law, always being on Kobe Bryant’s side, including during the 2003 rape allegations. Moreover, she was present at Kobe Bryant’s final NBA game. However, following Kobe’s death, her relationship with Vanessa started deteriorating. Vanessa told the press that Sofia wasn’t there for her following Kobe’s untimely death, and the death of their daughter.
Moreover, when the news broke that Vanessa was selling the house in which Sofia lived, a huge rift was created between the two, as Sofia went public, saying that her daughter was evicting her, and claiming that Vanessa wanted the vehicle she was using given back to her.
On the other hand, Vanessa was looking for a new home for her mother, however, things went from bad to worse, when Sofia filed a lawsuit against her daughter, claiming that Kobe and she entered into an oral agreement before he died that he and Vanessa would provide for her until the end of her life.
She sued her daughter for $5 million, saying that she worked as an unpaid ‘longtime personal assistant and nanny to Vanessa and her daughter for years’. Vanessa eventually didn’t want to live through the media buzz of the lawsuit as she’d just lost her husband and daughter, and the two eventually settled the lawsuit, however, the terms of the settlement are yet to be released to the public.
Vanessa Bryant Short Bio
Born Vanessa Cornejo Urbieta on the 5 May 1982, in Huntington Beach, California, USA. Of Mexican ancestry, she has a sister who is 10 years older than her. Before meeting Kobe Bryant, Vanessa was working as a back-up dancer, but still going to high school. She was a back-up dancer for the music video “G’d Up”, performed by Tha Eastsidaz, and Kobe Bryant at the time worked on his debut studio album. The two met in the building, and just six months later they went on their first date, and soon became engaged.
The wedding ceremony was held on 18 April 2001 at St. Edward the Confessor Catholic Church in Dana Point, California, after which the two welcomed four children, Natalia Diamante, Bianka Bella, Capri, and Gianna Maria-Onore Bryant. They went through several ups and downs duringtheir marriage, including the divorce process in 2011 but which was called off in 2013. Unfortunately, Vanessa was struck with a huge family tragedy when Kobe and Gianna died in a helicopter crash on 26 January 2020.
They were flying to Camarillo Airport in Ventura County for a basketball game at Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks, when the helicopter crashed into the mountain in Calabasas and all passengers, including the pilot, died instantly.
Vanessa hasn’t pursued a career, but has been focused on her family life and has been the head of the Kobe & Vanessa Bryant Family Foundation. Vanessa and Kobe didn’t have a prenuptial agreement, meaning that she has inherited all the wealth of the former NBA player, which is estimated to be around $600 million as of late 2021.
