The late, great Kobe Bryant was hopelessly smitten by Vanessa from the moment he saw her. The two first met in the late 90s, during a Snoop Dogg music video shoot. Since he also wanted to explore the world of music, Kobe hired Vanessa to be a part of his music video. While the video didn’t see the light of day, the LA Lakers legend found his soulmate. However, their journey wasn’t an easy one initially.
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Jeff Pearlman, in his book Three Ring Circus, mentioned the Kobe-Vanessa story and detailed how the two got together. After hiring Vanessa for the music video, Kobe got her number and went on to do the typical newly-in-love shenanigans. He paged her incessantly and pulled up to her high school in his black Mercedes to offer rides among many other things.
The future superstar caused a huge uproar in Marina High School when he sent dozens of roses to the school’s main office for Vanessa to pick up from there. While his actions were cute for both of them, it was about to become a problem for Vanessa.
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As per Pearlman’s book, Vanessa’s classmates revealed that Kobe was all she talked about. She brought his pictures to school and had countless stories to tell her friends. One of Vanessa’s friends recalled, “It was just Kobe this and Kobe that. It got so that that was all she or anyone could talk about.”
In addition, the school administration was also finding it difficult to accommodate Vanessa in their structure following her star boyfriend’s grand gestures. Soon, she was asked by the administration to complete her senior year via independent study. But this setback only brought Kobe and Vanessa closer and made them stronger for the future challenges in life.
Kobe Bryant’s relationship with Vanessa caused problems in his family
Even though Kobe and Vanessa were hopelessly in love, Kobe’s parents were against their relationship. Soon after meeting her for the first time, Kobe took his future wife to Disneyland on their first date. Six months later, the two got engaged.
It started a divide in Kobe’s relationship with his parents, ending in 2 years of estrangement. Joe and Pamela Bryant believed that their son was too young to tie the knot with someone, especially when he had his entire career lined up for him.
Regardless of the opinions, Kobe and Vanessa went ahead and got married. Kobe’s parents didn’t attend the wedding and since then the Black Mamba has become distant from his family. But he was about to begin a new journey and make his own family, his bloodline. However, eventually, Kobe and Vanessa welcomed their first daughter Natalia into the world in 2003, and the Bryants rekindled their relationship.
