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While he shined his million-dollar smile on the Oscars red carpet last night, Kobe Bryant’s wife, Vanessa Bryant, was standing right by his side. She has been a role model to many, but in the wake of the #MeToo movement, Kobe Bryant’s Oscar win has caused the rape allegations against him to resurface. And now, many are criticising the decision to honor him with an Oscar. Find out more about what happened and how Bryant met his soul mate.

Vanessa Bryant, age 37, came from a broken home, but that didn’t stop her from making her own family and personal life a huge success. She and Kobe Bryant are proud parents of four daughters, but a lot more has gone into the making of their happy family. Check out some interesting details from Vanessa Bryant’s wiki to know more about her.

Raised by a Single Mother

Vanessa Cornejo Ubrieta was born on May 5, 1982, to a Mexican-Irish mother, Sofia Laine. She raised her and her sisters in Orange County when her father left after her birth.

Ubrieta worked two jobs to afford a good life for her children. Later, Ubrieta married Stephen Laine, an inventory manager at a food company. He helped her to raise her kids.

Vanessa Bryant’s stepdad was married to her mother from 1990 to 2003. The relationship fizzled out during the course of the marriage.

Bryant went to Maria High School and graduated from St. Boniface Parochial School in 1996.

When the couple divorced in 2003, Stephen Laine said some cruel things about the mother-daughter duo.

Laine reportedly called both of them “gold diggers’ and that his former wife taught Bryant well about drying out her husband’s wallet by waiting out the marriage for 10 years.

“In California … it’s considered a long term marriage and then she gets paid for life or until she remarries … just like her mother is doing to me,” Laine explained.

All this came out when Vanessa Bryant’s superstar husband was accused of infidelity, and the couple was on the verge of filing for a divorce.

Whether or not the accusations were true, Bryant’s wife was in the spotlight after the All-Star player confessed to infidelity.

How Kobe and Vanessa Bryant Met

Kobe Bryant was a high-profile basketball player since the age of 17. Meanwhile, Vanessa Bryant, who is four years his junior, was an aspiring model back then and worked as a backup dancer.

It was during the filming of Tha Eastsidaz’s music video, “G’d Up,” that she happened to meet Kobe Bryant. He was incidentally in the same building working on his debut album.

The couple instantly connected. They were young and fell in love.

Within six months the couple got engaged, and Vanessa Bryant had the media’s attention. She opted to finish school independently.

Kobe and Vanessa Bryant tied the knot in 2001 in California. However, it was reported that Bryant’s parents were unhappy that he was marrying so young, as he was 22, and his bride was 18. They also opposed the fact that Vanessa Bryant’s nationality was not African-American.

Nonetheless, the couple went ahead with the nuptials at the St. Edward Roman Catholic Church, in Dana Point, California.

Vanessa Bryant’s Kids

Vanessa Bryant had three daughters with the basketball star. Natalia Diamante was born in 2003, Gianna Maria-Onore in 2006, and the youngest, Bianka Bella, arrived in 2016.

It was reported that the mother of three went through a painful miscarriage after her egg was fertilized outside the uterus. But she soon overcame the tragedy and now enjoys raising her three darling daughters with Kobe Bryant.

In the Eye of the Storm

In 2003, the world was in a tizzy after a 19-year-old woman came out and accused Kobe Bryant of sexual assault.

The incident apparently happened after Bryant was checked into a lodge after his knee surgery. The teenager complained that Bryant sexually abused her the night before his surgery.

Bryant denied her accusations and claimed that the sexual relationship was through mutual consent, leading to infidelity, too.

The allegations hacked Bryant’s high-stilted career at the base, and he was no longer an idol to the millions who loved him.

Later, the charges of sexual assault were dropped, as the woman did not want to go to trial.

“After months of reviewing discovery, listening to her attorney, and even her testimony in person, I now understand how she feels that she did not consent to this encounter,” Bryant said in a statement.

Vanessa Bryant stood by her husband’s side throughout the tumultuous time, but their marriage became unstable. They did not have a prenuptial agreement, and even though Bryant was ready to leave her husband in 2013, she found it in her heart to forgive him.

And what she received as an apology was blinding enough!

Kobe Bryant splurged on a ring for his wife after the trial ended. Vanessa Bryant’s ring cost her husband $4.0 million for the 8-carat stunner!

The couple sport matching tattoos to show their love for each other. However, the tainted past lives on to this day.