Vanessa Bryant celebrates Easter with daughters Bianka and Capri in sweet video
Vanessa Bryant is preparing to celebrate her first Easter without her NBA husband Kobe Bryant and daughter Gianna, both of whom died in a January helicopter crash.
The 37-year-old mother took to Instagram on Saturday, one day before Easter, to post a darling video of her two youngest children joyfully opening an oversized blue Easter egg. Wearing toy glasses and a pink pajama set with white hearts, daughter Bianka, 3, hammers at the egg while Capri, 9 months, smiles and giggles.
“Ok look, there’s treats inside! Let’s see what’s in there,” says Vanessa, helping to break the egg open and pull out the stuffing.
“Can I eat it?” Bianka asks, to which her mom replies, “Yeah, baby bites though.”
Sunday will be the first Easter without Kobe, 41, and Gianna, 13, who died along with seven others when their helicopter crashed in Calabasas, Calif., on Jan. 26. The couple also has a 17-year-old daughter named Natalia.
In March, Bryant shared a touching Instagram video marking the two-month anniversary of her husband and daughter’s deaths. The clip featured Kobe discussing Gianna, who was nicknamed Gigi, and her love of basketball.
"She started out playing soccer, which is one of my favorite sports as well," Kobe said in the clip. "Then, when she asked about learning the game of basketball and I started teaching her piece by piece, she started enjoying it and loving it and now she plays every day."
The video shows Kobe and Gigi looking happy together while sitting on the basketball court.
"It’s been a joy to watch her grow and to be there every day for that process," Kobe continued. "Her temperament is a lot like mine. She’s extremely competitive, very fiery and backs down from no challenge. So, she has a mixture — she has a good mix of me and a good mix of her mama, so that makes her even more competitive than I am."
Last month, Vanessa shared a photo of the family posing in front of a painted mural of the basketball star and Gigi, with a halo over their heads. Vanessa sported a pair of dark sunglasses as she carried Capri in one arm, with Bianka in front and Natalia by her side. The caption contained lyrics to the song “Smile” by Nat King Cole.
Vanessa, who married Kobe in 2001, has expressed her grief on social media.
“My brain refuses to accept that both Kobe and Gigi are gone,” Vanessa wrote in a February Instagram post. “I can’t process both at the same time. It’s like I’m trying to process Kobe being gone but my body refuses to accept my Gigi will never come back to me. It feels wrong. Why should I be able to wake up another day when my baby girl isn’t being able to have that opportunity?!”
Vanessa added. “...I know what I’m feeling is normal. It’s part of the grieving process. I just wanted to share in case there’s anyone out there that’s experienced a loss like this...”
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