VANESSA BRYANT RESPONDS TO HER MOTHER’S $5M LAWSUIT: ‘[KOBE] WOULD BE SO DISAPPOINTED IN HER BEHAVIOR AND LACK OF EMPATHY’

Vanessa Bryant’s estranged mother, Sofia Laine, hit her with a whopping $5 million lawsuit claiming that Kobe Bryant promised to take care of her for the rest of her life before he passed.

Laine claims that Vanessa didn’t honor this so she took her to court and did an interview on Univision.

Univision’s David Valadez posted the first page of Laine’s suit and it says she was never compensated by the couple for “personal assistant and nanny to their four children.”

Vanessa responded to the allegations saying that it’s cap because she was a stay-at-home mom and took care of her kids full-time.

“My mother is continuing to try and find ways to extort a financial windfall from our family. I have supported her for nearly twenty years, and she was never my or Kobe’s personal assistant, nor was she a nanny,” she explained in a statement to People. “I have always been a stay-at-home mother and my husband and I were our daughter’s full-time caregivers. For nearly two decades, we arranged for my mother to live in our nearby properties, at no cost to her because she had claimed that she didn’t have any money to buy her own home after her divorce. “

“My husband and I felt it was best for her not to live in our home. She watched our girls from time to time, just like most grandparents do,” she clarified. “She did not take care of business issues or expenses. She was a grandmother who was supported by me and her son-in-law at my request.”

Vanessa continued: “She now wants to back charge me $96 per hour for supposedly working 12 hours a day for 18 years for watching her grandchildren. In reality, she only occasionally babysat my older girls when they were toddlers. As of ten years ago, our kids were full-time students and athletes and I didn’t have another child until 2016.”

Laine claims in September, her daughter told her she had to move out and return a car gifted by her late husband. “Earlier this year, I was looking for a new home for her and, a week later, she went on television and gave an interview disparaging our family and making false accusations while living rent-free in a gated apartment complex in Newport Coast,” Bryant said in her statement to People, noting, “Even after that betrayal, I was willing to provide my mother with monthly support for the rest of her life and that wasn’t good enough. She, instead, contacted me through intermediaries (contrary to what she claims, my phone number hasn’t changed) and demanded $5 million, a house, and a Mercedes SUV.  Because I did not give in to her hurtful threats and monetary requests, she has spiraled out of control and is making false and absurd claims.”

Vanessa Bryant noted that on top of the support Laine has been receiving from her and Kobe, she has been getting alimony from her late husband since 2004.

“My husband and I have never discouraged or kept her from providing for herself,” she concluded. “This lawsuit is frivolous, disgraceful, and unimaginably hurtful.  My husband never promised my mother anything, and he would be so disappointed in her behavior and lack of empathy.”