'Our relationship is s**t': Kobe Bryant revealed rocky relationship with parents after marrying Vanessa
Basketball legend Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others died after a private helicopter carrying them crashed in Calabasas, California, this past Sunday, January 26.
Before the police released the identities of the victims, there was a fear that his wife Vanessa, his other three daughters Natalia, Bianka, and Capri, and his parents Pamela Cox Bryant and Joe Bryant were on board as well.
It was later confirmed that all of them were safe, though there has still been no statement from the parents, whose relationship with Kobe had deteriorated over the last few years to the point that he was not even in talking terms with his mother.
Kobe was born in Philadelphia as the youngest of three children and saw his dad Joe, a former NBA player himself, move the family to Italy to continue playing professional basketball at a lower level.
His parents would be influential in him following his dream and making it to the NBA, though cracks began appearing in their relationship when he was 21.
That was the time he met Vanessa Laine, who would go on to be his wife for the better part of two decades. The two had a whirlwind romance that culminated in them getting engaged to each other just six months after they started dating, much to both Joe's and Pamela's chagrin.
The parents had disapproved of the relationship, and their impending marriage, for a number of reasons, including believing that Kobe was too young to get married and displeasure over the fact that Vanessa was not African-American.
They did not attend the couple's wedding in Dana Point, California, in 2001, and remained estranged with Kobe for over a year until he and Vanessa welcomed their first child, Natalia, into the world in January 2003.
The reconciliation lasted for over a decade until 2013, which was when Kobe had another massive fallout with his mother over memorabilia from his early years that she intended to auction away for close to $500,000 — she claimed he had given her the rights to the items remaining in her home.
Kobe sued the auction house and asked them to return the items, eventually reaching an agreement that saw them sell less than 10% of the original items. While his parents apologized for their actions afterward, the damage had been done.
Speaking about them in a 2016 ESPN interview, Kobe revealed he had not spoken to them for three years, "Our relationship is s***. I say [to them], 'I'm going to buy you a very nice home', and the response is 'That's not good enough'?" Then you're selling my s***?"
Neither was invited to attend his retirement ceremony with the Los Angeles Lakers either, where the team retired his career numbers 8 and 24 in honor of his incredible legacy.
He did not mention them in his emotional speech that night either, instead paying tribute to Vanessa, who he called an "inspiration" as well as other basketball stars such as Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O'Neal, Walt Chamberlain and more.
And it appears as though he never reconciled with them in the following years, with his death undoubtedly leaving them wondering what could have been.