Vanessa Bryant

Vanessa Marie Bryant (previously Laine; born Vanessa Urbieta Cornejo; May 5, 1982) is an American philanthropist, business executive and model. She is the widow of American professional basketball player Kobe Bryant. They founded the Kobe and Vanessa Bryant Foundation in 2007 to provide scholarships to minority college students worldwide. Bryant leads the Mamba and Mambacita Sports Foundation, an organization dedicated to supporting child athletes who are in need. She is the president and chief executive of Granity Studios and a member of the board of directors of Bodyarmor SuperDrink. Early life Bryant was born on May 5, 1982, in Tijuana, Mexico. She is of Mexican descent. Her parents divorced when she was a baby. After her parents' divorce, her biological father moved to Baja California. She has an older sister, Sophie. Her mother was a shipping clerk at an electronics company. In 1990, her mother married Stephen Laine, who was a middle manager at the same electronics company that she worked in. She began going by Laine after the marriage and officially changed her name to Vanessa Marie Laine in 2000, despite never officially being adopted by her step-father. Her family's home was in Garden Grove, California, and she resided with her step-grandfather Robert Laine in Huntington Beach, California. She attended Marina High School. In August 1999, Bryant and her friend Rowena Ireifej attended a hip-hop concert at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre. They were approached by a company and offered work as music video extras and backup dancers. Bryant later appeared in music videos for artists including Krayzie Bone and Snoop Dogg. Her mother chaperoned her on the shoots. In November 1999, Bryant met her future husband Kobe Bryant on the set of a music video for a rap song he was releasing. The interaction was captured on camera and, years later, the short clip was included in Kobe Bryant's 2015 Showtime documentary 'Muse'.