Kobe Bryant's wife Vanessa 'devastated' after crash: 'She can't finish a sentence without crying'
Basketball legend Kobe Bryant's wife is struggling to keep it together and "can't finish a sentence without crying", her friends say.
Friends of the family spoke to People and shared that the NBA legend's widow has "a good support system" but "you can never be prepared for this". "Vanessa is devastated. She can hardly keep it together. She can’t finish a sentence without crying. But she is working very hard to pull it together for the other girls. She now has to be the strong one," the source added.
The couple's 13-year-old daughter Gianna was also in the helicopter and died along with her father and seven others. Vanessa has three surviving daughters with Kobe named Natalia, 17, Bianka, 3, and Capri, who is seven months old. The source continued that Vanessa "is surrounded by people who love her and love Kobe."
"She has a good support system. She is relying on her faith. She is not alone. But she will be grieving this for a very long time," the source added. According to another family friend Kobe had a special bond with each of his children and was "so proud to see [them] take after not only him and Vanessa but also grow into their own."
During an earlier interview, the former LA Lakers star had shared that "being a father is the thing I am most proud of in this world; it’s my greatest accomplishment." Kobe and Vanessa had tied the knot back in 2001 when she was only 18 years old and he was 22. "Despite their ups and downs, [the couple] were soulmates. She thought of him as her partner for life," a source revealed.
We had previously reported that Bryant's former coach and father's best friend, Wayne Slappy revealed that the basketball legend's family is struggling to come to terms with the tragedy. "Can you imagine a black hole? It's empty, how do you fill it? They're a close-knit family. He was 41 years old, and then his daughter dies in an accident with him too," Slappy told Daily Mail.