Vanessa Bryant accused her mom of trying to extort her family after Sofia Laine filed a lawsuit seeking financial support Tuesday.
Laine claimed she had worked as a “longtime personal assistant and nanny” for the Bryant family and that Kobe Bryant had “promised to take care of” Laine “for the rest of her life,” according to court documents obtained by People magazine.
Vanessa claimed that her mom was “continuing to try and find ways to extort a financial windfall from our family,” in a statement shared on social media Thursday.
#vanessabryant speaks on how her mother is trying to extort her pic.twitter.com/zgO8eDWFlj
— quickwiththetea (@quickwiththetea) December 17, 2020
Vanessa claimed she had spent the last 20 years supporting her mother financially, but denied that Laine ever worked as the family’s personal assistant or nanny.
Laine allegedly is trying to back-charge Vanessa $96 per hour for “supposedly working 12 hours a day for 18 years.”
As for the previous claims made by Laine about Vanessa kicking her out of the family home, Vanessa claimed those were also false. Vanessa was reportedly looking for her mom a new home when Laine did the interview with Univision. (RELATED: Vanessa Bryant Responds After Mother Accuses Her Of Kicking Her Out Of The House Following Kobe’s Death)
“She has no regard for how this is affecting my children and me,” Bryant said in the statement. “She wants to live off of my daughters and me for the rest of her life while continuing to collect monthly alimony from her ex-husband since 2004. My husband and I have never discouraged or kept her from providing for herself.”
“My husband never promised my mother anything and he would be so disappointed in her behavior and lack of empathy,” she added.