Natalia Bryant: The Tragic Details About Kobe's Eldest Daughter
Back in 1999, basketball legend Kobe Bryant was entering into his short-lived music career when he met Vanessa Laine, a 17 year old high school student who was working as a backup dancer on his music video. They became smitten with each other quickly and, come Laine's 18th birthday, the two announced their engagement. Bryant married Laine in a Catholic church ceremony in April 2001 and, throughout the ups and downs of their nearly 20 years together, the couple welcomed four beautiful daughters into the world.
In a July 2017 interview with "Extra," the basketball star spoke about fatherhood and what it was like to be surrounded by all girls. "Guys keep teasing me. My friends say, 'It takes a real man to make a boy.' I'm like, 'Dude, it takes a king to make a princess,'" Bryant remarked.
The oldest of the Black Mamba's kids, Natalia Diamante Bryant, was born January 19, 2003, and was soon followed by her sisters, Gianna, Bianka, and Capri. While she certainly lived a lavish life as the daughter of the Los Angeles Lakers star, life for the student and model hasn't always been easy, especially since the death of her father and sister Gianna. From the difficulties of mourning her late family members to a scary stalking incident and online harassment, here are the tragic details about Natalia Bryant, Kobe Bryant's eldest daughter.
Natalia Bryant's father and sister died in a helicopter crash
On the morning of January 26, 2020, when she was just 17 years old, Natalia Bryant's life tragically changed forever. Her father and 13 year old sister Gianna were in a helicopter en route to a youth basketball game with seven other passengers when they crashed into the hills of Calabasas, California. Everyone on board died, rocking the surviving members of the family, friends, and fans of Kobe Bryant everywhere.
Understandably, Bryant and her family took time away from the spotlight to mourn privately, but she's worked hard to keep her dad's memory alive. In March 2023, she gave a moving speech at the unveiling of Kobe Bryant's permanent handprints and footprints display in front of The TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles.
"While most people knew him as a basketball player or a storyteller, I got to know and love him as my dad. And let me tell you, he is the MVP of girl dads, to say the least. Being a dad of four girls is definitely not easy, but despite the NBA and Lakers schedules, he always made sure to support me and my sisters. ... This day symbolizes the impact that he has had on a city that he loved and cared for so deeply," she said.
Fan tributes made grieving harder
In June 2020, less than six months after her father and sister's death, Natalia Bryant and her mom made the decision to block Kobe Bryant fan pages on social media. She shared the reasons for her decision in an Instagram post (via The Sun) which read, "Many of you may have noticed the recent switch to a private account. My mom and I have had to unfortunately block fan pages because they keep reposting our pics. This makes it 10x harder to deal with our loss. We hope that people understand that although these fan pages have good intentions, they make moving forward harder since they are constant reminders."
However, it wasn't just the fan tributes that made grieving harder. Grisly images of the helicopter crash and its victims had been taken and shared by the sheriff's and fire department employees who had been on the scene. Bryant and her family settled their lawsuit regarding the photos in February 2023 and were able to put their fears of the images resurfacing to bed.
Thankfully, after a few years had passed, Bryant was once again able to appreciate her father and sister's tributes around Los Angeles, of which there are many, including in street art and murals. In speaking with Town & Country during a January 2024 interview, the late NBA star's daughter explained, "I love seeing the murals. Whenever I see them when I'm driving around, I'm like, 'Oh, okay.' They feel like special gems."
She suffered an injury while on a skiing trip
In December 2020, Natalia Bryant, her mom, and sisters went on a ski trip with the singer Ciara's family after Christmas. The getaway was probably a welcome reprieve after the difficult year they'd had, but their snowy retreat unfortunately didn't go as smoothly as they might have hoped. While little is known about Natalia's accident, Vanessa Bryant shared a video on her Instagram of her eldest daughter receiving treatment for a sprained wrist and finger, injuries she acquired while on the trip. Luckily, they seemed to be in good spirits about the whole ordeal.
"This is payback for making fun of daddy's fingers. I was waiting for that [Gary Vitti] finger pull so I tried to distract her. Thankfully that wasn't necessary," Vanessa wrote in the caption (via People), referencing the time the Lakers' athletic trainer had popped Kobe's dislocated finger back into place in a 2016 game against the San Antonio Spurs.
Kobe Bryant didn't get to see her college acceptance
Natalia Bryant was so young when her dad died that he unfortunately didn't get to be there some big moments in her life, including her acceptance to the University of Southern California (USC). In March 2021, Vanessa Bryant shared a heartwarming Instagram video of her eldest daughter jumping for joy in a USC sweatshirt.
She captioned the video, "Tears of joy. I'm SO happy for you Nani! I know daddy is so PROUD OF YOU. I am so PROUD OF YOU!! Your hard work and dedication was so worth it. You pushed through the most excruciating pain imaginable and you succeeded. I wish Daddy and Gigi were physically here to celebrate but I know they're here in spirit. We love you so much!"
Bryant appeared in USC merch alongside her mom and sisters in another Instagram post shared in August of the same year, when her mom was dropping her off at college. Vanessa captioned the photo, "Today was rough. (This was before the tears came down)," and made a reference to missing her late husband on this monumental day. Today, Bryant is still studying at USC and majoring in film at the school her father loved.
Natalia Bryant received backlash over going to prom
Although Natalia Bryant wasn't your average teenager in 2021, typical high school things were still important to her. In May of that year, the late Kobe Bryant was honored with an induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and while Bryant did attend her dad's jacket and ring ceremony, she had to leave shortly thereafter.
Her mom explained to fans in an Instagram post that Bryant had gone to her senior prom. Vanessa missed her own prom years prior because Kobe's playoff game fell on the same night. "When we heard Natalia's prom night and Kobe's Hall of Fame night were on the same night, I looked at Natalia and said, 'Well, if it's any consolation, Daddy kept me from going to my prom, so it's only right that he tried to keep you from going to yours.' ... [E]ven in heaven, he's still trying to make moves and keep the boys away. Natalia's experienced so much loss, I couldn't let her miss out on her once in a lifetime opportunity to go to her senior prom."
Unfortunately Bryant couldn't escape the trolls online when she went to prom with a white date. Some Twitter users took issue with it because of her race, writing, "Are you okay with Natalia Bryant (Kobe Bryant's daughter) taking a white man to prom?" But thankfully, other comments defended Bryant and her date against the racist remark.
Natalia Bryant gave up her volleyball dreams
It's no surprise that Natalia Bryant inherited more than just her father's height, measuring at nearly 6 feet tall. The Black Mamba also passed his athleticism down, but her hatred of running meant she wasn't interested in playing basketball. Instead, Bryant developed a passion for volleyball at 9 years old when she watched Misty May-Treanor play at the 2012 London Olympics.
In a September 2021 interview with Teen Vogue, Bryant said, "I was watching, and [my mom] was like, 'Nani, you're going to love this sport. You're going to love volleyball. I'm calling it right now.'" As it turned out, her mom was right, and Bryant served as a middle blocker when she played varsity volleyball for her high school. She often attended games with her family, including a USC vs. Oregon match with her dad just a couple of months before he and her sister Gianna died.
Although she initially intended to continue playing volleyball in college and hoped to become a Division I athlete, everything shifted for Bryant after the helicopter crash. She continued, "I love the sport. I quit volleyball after the accident because I was so ... a lot was going on at that time. I knew I didn't ... love volleyball as much as they love basketball. I'm okay with that."
Her father wasn't there for many of her milestones
In the years that followed Kobe and Gianna Bryant's deaths, Natalia Bryant has had a stunning transformation and come into her own with a number of accomplishments. She signed with IMG Models at 18 years old in February 2021 and has since walked the runway for Versace at Milan Fashion Week and become the face of Victoria's Secret Pink's 2024 spring campaign.
A couple of years later, as a film student at the University of Southern California, Bryant made her directorial debut. Bryant was inspired to get into film by Sofia Coppola and Greta Gerwig, two strong female directors, as well as her late father, with whom she used to watch movies regularly.
During her January 2024 interview with Town & Country, Bryant explained that while she knows there's a weight on her shoulders given her family name, she's taking her time. "In terms of legacy, my main goal is just to be the best version of me that I possibly can. ... [Also] understanding that there's no expectation that I should have for each stage of life. I just need to know that I have to keep learning, because there's no finish line. You just have to keep pushing and being the best person you can be and soaking everything up like a sponge. ... The job's never done," she said.
She's been accused of benefiting from nepotism
There's no doubt that Natalia Bryant has worked hard to get where she is regardless of her parents. After Vanessa Bryant shared an Instagram post (via TheThings) commending her daughter's blossoming modeling career in 2021, internet users voiced their thoughts on how Bryant really got the opportunity. One person wrote, "She is a beautiful girl, but if she were not Kobe's daughter she would not be modeling for IMG." Another added, "Nepotism. Otherwise she would never ever be a model. Fact."
A similar situation arose amid Bryant's gig as an intern on Beyonce's Renaissance World Tour in 2023, though the online comments took a lighter tone (via Black Enterprise). "If I were a nepo baby I would utilize the forces that is my last name to get me an internship with Beyoncé," one Twitter user wrote. Whether or not Bryant was given a shot because of her last name, she's been working hard in a range of industries and has proved her determination to succeed.
Bryant's mom remains her No. 1 cheerleader. In December 2023, she shared an Instagram post boasting of her achievements. "You've balanced school, friends, family, your sorority, your internship, your modeling jobs, runway debut, and film responsibilities & projects! You still find time to be present and responsible for everything you do and show up for every family event your schedule permits you to attend. I cannot express how proud we are of you," the caption read.
She had to file a restraining order against her stalker
From the time Natalia Bryant was 17 years old, she had been harassed online by Dwayne Cortez Toliver Kemp, a 30 year old man. For two years, she ignored his relentless messages, but when he began showing up with flowers at USC campus looking for her, she became afraid for her life. According to her testimony via NBC Los Angeles, she said, "[Kemp] was in love with me. He wanted to make love to me. He wanted to be together. ... I was in fear, for the longest time, that if I did block him, he would act in rage or get angry."
It became clear that it was a case of unrequited love, though Kemp later told authorities that he simply misinterpreted his relationship with the late NBA star's daughter. However, it seems Bryant may have been right to be fearful of Kemp because alongside the many photos he posted of her on his social media were several pictures of the guns he owned and planned to buy. He had also previously been arrested four times previously, including for one incident that involved a gun. After a restraining order was granted in November 2022, Kemp was ordered to stay at least 200 yards away from Bryant for the next three years and was forced to surrender all of his firearms.