Vanessa Bryant Biography

Vanessa Cornejo Ubrieta Laine Bryant (born Vanessa Cornejo Ubrieta May 5, 1982) is the wife of NBA star Kobe Bryant.

Vanessa was born in Huntington Beach, California to Sofia Laine, of Mexican & Irish ancestry. She has a sister named Sophie that is 10 yrs older than she is. According to Vanessa's lawyer: Sofia and Vanessa's father divorced when Vanessa was just a baby, after which the father had moved to Baja, Mexico.

According to Stephen Laine: Sofia Laine was a low-level shipping clerk at an electronics firm ... a single mother living in her sister's spare room. Sofia raised Vanessa alone until 1990 when she married Stephen Laine. In high school Vanessa legally changed her family name to Laine even though Stephen never adopted Vanessa. For the most part, Vanessa was raised by her step-grandfather, Robert Laine.

The Laines lived in Anaheim, then in Temecula briefly before moving to Garden Grove, where they bought a four-bedroom fixer-upper. Vanessa graduated in 1995 from St. Boniface parochial school, and used Laine's father's Huntington Beach address to get Vanessa into his alma mater, Marina High School. Vanessa wanted to attend Marina High to be with Laila and Sasha (Stephen Laine's nieces) because she was very close to them.

17 year old Vanessa met 21 year old Kobe in November 1999 while she was working as a background dancer on the Tha Eastsidaz/ Snoop Dogg video "G'd Up". In the video, Vanessa is in a silver bikini and lip sings the chorus/hook "If it ain't chronic don't blaze it up, and if it ain't a Chevy, don't raise it up". Kobe was in the building working on his album (it was never released). The two began dating and soon the relationship started getting attention from the media.

Kobe sent Vanessa flowers at school and used to pick up and drop off Vanessa everyday in his black Mercedes. Soon the media attention proved too much for the school and they banned Kobe from the campus, so Kobe let Vanessa drive the Mercedes herself. Evenutually Vanessa completed high school in 2000 through independent study due to the media. Kobe was also banned from attending Vanessa's prom and her graduation. Vanessa did go to her graduation but not her prom.

Kobe asked Vanessa to marry him in May 2000, after just 6 months of dating. Vanessa's engagement ring was 7 carats and cost $100,000.

On April 18th, 2001, 23 year old Kobe and 19 year old Vanessa were married at St. Edward the Confessor Catholic Church in Dana Point, California. There were only about 12 guests at the wedding. Neither Kobe's parents, nor his two sisters, nor his longtime advisor and agent Arn Tellem, nor Kobe's teammates attended. This disagreement resulted in an estrangement period of over two years, during which Kobe Bryant did not have any contact with his parents. Finally in Spring 2003 after Kobe's 1st daughter Natalie was born, Kobe and his parents reconciled.

According to Vanessa's cousin Laila Laine, there was no prenuptial agreement: "She just came home one day and said something to the effect that Kobe didn't want a prenup...that he loved her too much for one", Laila remembered.

After the wedding the couple drove away in Kobe's Ferrari. They moved into a $4.1 million dollar mansion in Newport Beach, California.

Vanessa gave birth to the couple's first daughter,Natalia Diamante Bryant, on Sunday January 19th, 2003. In April 2005, Vanessa suffered a miscarriage due to an ectopic pregnancy. On Monday May 1st, 2006 their second daughter, Gianna Maria-Onore Bryant was born. Interestingly, Gianna was born six minutes ahead of Kobe's ex-Laker teammate Shaquille O'Neal's daughter Me'arah Sanaa who was born in FL.

On July 4, 2003, Kobe was charged with raping a 19-year-old hotel worker in Eagle,Colorado. Vanessa remained supportive of her husband and proclaimed his innocence. Kobe bought Vanessa a $4 million 8 carat purple diamond ring as a way to say he was sorry. Eventually the charges against Kobe were dropped.

Kobe and Vanessa moved from the Los Angeles community of Pacific Palisades to the gated Newport Coast community of Ocean Ridge in Orange County. By coincidence, their new home was previously owned by Karl Malone's agent Dwight Manley. A state-of-the-art security system was installed, as well as a decked out home theater. They decorated their home with stuff of their childhood: Kobe's Star Wars memorabilia and Vanessa's Disneyana. In the backyard they put a replica of the cottage from the Harry Potter movies.