Vanessa Bryant and her daughter Natalia each thanked fans for the overwhelming support since the tragic deaths of Kobe and Gianna — but admitted going on social media has become tough.
Vanessa Bryant, 38, revealed that seeing photos of her late husband Kobe and daughter Gianna on social media has been “really hard.” In an open letter to fans posted on Saturday, June 14, the mom-of-four opened up about why she’s had to change the “algorithm” on her Instagram account. “Thank you so much for all the [love],” Vanessa opened the message, posted to her Instagram story. “@nataliabryant and I have unfortunately had to block fan pages because it’s been really hard to go online and constantly see pics of our beloved Gigi and Kobe under every single square of our explore pages,” she explained.
“Blocking the fan pages has helped change the algorithm,” the California native added to her 14 million followers. ‘We [love] you all but please understand that we had to do this for our own healing not because we don’t appreciate your [love]. xo,” she concluded, including purple heart emojis throughout the post. Her eldest daughter Natalia, 17, shared a similar sentiment in an Instagram message re-shared by her mom.
“Thank you so much for all the love and support. Many of you have noticed the recent switch to a private account,” the teen posted to her 1 million followers. “My mom and I have had to unfortunately block fan pages because they keep reposting our pics. This makes it 10x harder to deal with our loss,” Natalia — who is a big sister to Bianka, 3, and Capri, 1 — wrote in her emotional message.
“We hope that people understand that although these fan pages have good intentions, they make moving forward harder since they are constant reminders. Blocking the accounts have helped change the algorithm but we can not go public until the fan pages stop,” Natalia added. “We love all of your sweet intentions and we hope you understand. Always, Natalia,” she concluded.
The family has been dealing with the crippling loss of Kobe and Gianna, who lost their lives in a tragic helicopter crash with seven others in January. The pair — who were just 41 and 13 at the time — were en route to a basketball practice at Kobe’s Mamba Sports Academy when the aircraft crashed into a hill.
Vanessa and her girls have been leaning on each other throughout the past few months, and have shared some sweet moments from their life at home! 3-year-old Bianka has become quite the TikTok star busting a move along with big sis Natalia, including in a quick video set to StaySolidRocky‘s “Party Girl.” Natalia and WNBA’s 2020 number one draft pick Sabrina Ionescu, 22, were having a laugh as they did their rehearsed routine when little Bianka popped up and stole the show. “Another B.B. special!” Vanessa captioned the moment, including the hashtag “#thetiktokprincess.”