Tragic Details About Kobe Bryant's Daughter, Natalia
Natalia Bryant knows tragedy well, having lost her father and sister when she was still in high school. But whether it's saying goodbye to loved ones or fearing for her life, Kobe Bryant's daughter has never really had it easy.
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00:00 Natalia Bryant knows tragedy well, having lost her father and sister when she was still
00:05 in high school. But whether it's saying goodbye to loved ones or fearing for her life, Kobe
00:10 Bryant's daughter has never really had it easy.
00:13 Natalia Bryant lost her father and sister just a week after her 17th birthday, so she
00:18 was forced to grow up fast. In addition to managing her own personal grief, she had to
00:23 be strong for her two younger sisters, Bianca and Capri.
00:27 As her mom Vanessa told People in 2021, Natalia rose to the challenge. Vanessa told the outlet,
00:33 on top of her own grief, she has balanced her senior year of high school applying to
00:37 colleges, nurturing her sisters, and just recently signing her own modeling contract
00:42 with IMG.
00:43 "I think the way you go about life, you always look for the positive side in any situation."
00:49 However, as Natalia told Teen Vogue that same year, it wasn't easy. She said,
00:54 "You do the best that you can. For my little sisters, we're trying to keep that memory
00:58 for them."
00:59 As for herself, she turned to her friends, mentors, and, of course, her family for strength.
01:04 Natalia told Elle in 2023,
01:06 "My mom and my sisters are amazing, and I can always lean on them for support."
01:11 In what feels like a truly cruel twist of fate, Natalia's senior prom fell on the exact
01:16 same night as her father's induction into the Hall of Fame. Her mom tried to make light
01:20 of the situation by sharing her own prom fail with Natalia on Instagram. Vanessa wrote,
01:25 "When I was a senior in high school, Kobe and I were engaged and he had a playoff game
01:29 the night of my prom. She ended up skipping it and turned it into a joke for her eldest
01:33 daughter."
01:34 Vanessa continued,
01:35 "I looked at Natalia and said, 'Well, if it's any consolation, Daddy kept me from going
01:40 to my prom, so it's only right that he tried to keep you from going to yours.' Of course,
01:44 we laughed because even in heaven, he's still trying to make moves and keep the boys away."
01:49 In reality, the conflicting schedule forced Natalia to make a difficult choice. In the
01:53 end, though, while she missed her dad's induction into the Hall of Fame, she did get to be a
01:57 part of it. The night before her prom, Natalia flew to Connecticut to accept her father's
02:02 Hall of Fame jacket. She then flew right back to Los Angeles so she wouldn't miss the prom.
02:08 Natalia was reminded of her late father during a vacation, which was actually meant to help
02:12 her forget about her loss. It was December 2020, and the family had just spent their
02:17 first holiday season without Kobe and Gianna Bryant. They decided to go on a post-Christmas
02:22 ski trip, but the fun soon turned to pain when Natalia suffered a freak injury that
02:27 was eerily similar to one of her father's. As Vanessa shared in a clip posted to Instagram,
02:33 Natalia appeared to have sprained her finger and her wrist while on the slopes. However,
02:37 she didn't seem too fussed about it. Vanessa joked in the post,
02:40 "This is payback for making fun of daddy's fingers. I was waiting for that Gary Vidi
02:45 finger pull so I tried to distract her."
02:47 Vanessa was referencing one of the last injuries her late husband experienced before his retirement.
02:53 It happened during a 2016 Los Angeles Lakers game against the San Antonio Spurs when Kobe
02:58 dislocated his right middle finger, and longtime Lakers trainer Gary Vidi immediately popped
03:03 it back into place. Kobe got back on the court without missing a beat. Judging by Natalia's
03:08 calm reaction to her own sprain, she's inherited that toughness.
03:12 "Being his daughter is one of the greatest joys of my life, and I hope to continue to
03:16 embody and cherish the many lessons he has taught me."
03:21 Natalia may never have followed in her dad's footsteps, but she did have her sights set
03:24 on a pro sports career. As she told Teen Vogue in 2021, she fell in love with volleyball
03:30 when she was just 9 years old. She recalled,
03:32 "It was the London Olympics. My mom took me to watch Misty May play beach volleyball."
03:37 Natalia was immediately smitten with the sport. Her mom thought it would be a great way for
03:42 her daughter to become confident in her height, and it was. Natalia was soon playing varsity
03:46 volleyball for her high school, and she was all in. She told Teen Vogue,
03:50 "I've always been very competitive. I think it's the way my parents raised me to be competitive."
03:55 She was also a regular at USC volleyball games, many of which she attended with her father,
04:00 and planned to keep playing once she entered college. She told Teen Vogue,
04:04 "I played club volleyball with the intention of becoming a D1 athlete. However, her father's
04:09 death changed all that." Once she arrived at the University of Southern
04:13 California in 2021, Natalia decided to take a break. She told Teen Vogue,
04:18 "I quit volleyball after the accident. A lot was going on at that time."
04:22 As if she hadn't been through enough, Natalia was the victim of a stalking incident that
04:27 began shortly after her father's death. A 30-year-old man named Dwayne Kemp started
04:31 sending messages to the then-17-year-old Natalia in 2020, and never stopped. In 2022, she sought
04:38 a restraining order after Kemp went offline and showed up at the University of Southern
04:43 California campus looking for her twice. According to court documents seen by TMZ, Kemp allegedly
04:49 thought he had a romantic relationship with Natalia, even though she never answered him.
04:54 During her testimony in court, Natalia said she feared for her safety after he showed
04:58 up at her sorority, and then at one of her classes. According to NBC Los Angeles, Natalia
05:04 said,
05:05 "He didn't want to make love to me. He wanted to be together."
05:07 As for why she didn't block him, she said she feared that would make him angry. For
05:12 his part, Kemp said it was all a misunderstanding. As reported by NBC Los Angeles, Kemp said,
05:17 "I give flowers to females all the time and it works. If I would have been blocked, I
05:22 would have known right then and there that she wasn't interested."
05:25 Even so, a judge concluded Natalia was in real danger, especially because Kemp was a
05:29 gun enthusiast who'd been arrested at least four times. He was ordered to stay 200 yards
05:35 away from her for three years, stop all contact, and get rid of all his firearms.
05:40 -