Yesterday, when we wrote about Vanessa Bryant‘s messy legal situation with her mother, we truly hoped it would be the start of resolution. Instead, things seem to be getting messier.
If you missed it, Sofia Laine filed a lawsuit against her daughter on December 16, claiming that she worked for the Bryant family as a personal assistant and nanny for 18 years. In a statement released on December 17, Vanessa criticized her mother’s fight for financial support and called the suit absurd.
Related: Former Little People, Big World Star Jacob Roloff Says He Was Molested By Producer.
Also on December 17, Sofia released her own comment — defending herself but, also, putting the blame on Vanessa for turning this family fight into a public affair.
The 68-year-old began her letter with:
“For starters, I would like to state that I do not enjoy airing our family grievances in the public. Although I filed a lawsuit, I did not make any public comments and was hoping for the court process to run its course without the publicity, as hurtful as it is.”
Now, while it’s true that Vanessa was the first person to address the public after Sofia filed the suit, it doesn’t seem fair to blame her daughter for involving everyone in their affair. Back in September, the grandmother first drew our attention to the tarnished state of their relationship when she spoke with El Gordo y la Flaca in an interview that reached many.
In her message from yesterday, Sofia went on to accuse her daughter of denying the truth and insisted once again that she had worked for the family. The bulk of her message essentially focused on the backpay she says she’s owed, and why it was her legal claim. She wrote:
“It is unfortunate that Vanessa is making such false statements, especially in the public. I understand she is trying to preserve her reputation, but it does not excuse her behavior. Vanessa knows very well that I was the family nanny for almost two decades. She even drafted and enforced an extremely strict schedule for the round-the-clock care of my grandchildren. It is simply ridiculous that she would deny this.”
While it’s sad to imagine any grandmother stranded financially, we did a little bit of digging, and Sofia seems to have gotten plenty of help from the Bryants throughout the years.
In a 2003 article published by the Arizona Daily Sun, they reported that Vanessa and Kobe helped Sofia and her then husband with cash and gifts worth close to $500,000. According to the report, Kobe also paid off Sofia’s mortgage (close to $230,000) for her Garden Grove house, took care of phone, dental, and dental bills, and paid off two car loans.
All of this was disclosed during Sofia’s divorce proceedings in 2002 — which was another legal mess, because Stephen Laine was trying to get out of paying standard alimony, so Sofia had to prove she was no longer receiving money from the Bryants.
While defending her mother’s position, that she no longer received financial benefits from her son-in-law, Vanessa actually told the courts something that backs up her 2020 statement to a T. She had said:
“I never represented to my mother that I would ‘take care of her’ financially if she stopped working.”
Regardless of all of this, we’re still hoping the two find some kind of resolution. Sofia said in her statement that she hopes for an amicable relationship with her daughter, and we’re seconding that and hoping the two of them can work this out. Kobe Bryant obviously meant a lot to Vanessa’s mom, too, and they’re both clearly struggling with their loss.
What do you think, readers? Does Sofia have a right to the backpay money she’s suing for? Or did the Bryants already help her enough? Is there a point when a grandparent *should* get paid to help out with their grandkids? Drop us a comment below!
[Image via WENN/Avalon]
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