Vanessa Bryant explains why she blocked Kobe and Gianna fan accounts on Instagram

'We had to do this for our own healing'

Vanessa Bryant explains why she has blocked fan accounts dedicated to Kobe and Gianna (Getty)

Vanessa Bryant has opened up about her reason for blocking Instagram fan accounts dedicated to her late husband and daughter, Kobe and Gianna.

This weekend, Vanessa shared an Instagram story explaining that she and her daughter Natalia decided to block the accounts because it was difficult seeing pictures of Kobe and Gianna, who died in a helicopter crash alongside seven others in January.

“Thx so much for all the love. @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,” Vanessa wrote.

According to Vanessa, blocking the accounts has helped change Instagram’s algorithm.

“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,” the mother-of-four added. “Xo.”

Vanessa, who made her Instagram account private, also shared a similar post made by Natalia, in which the 17-year-old explained that turning her account private had stopped fan accounts from reposting family pictures.

“Thank you all so much for all the love and support," Natalia wrote. "Many of you may have noticed the recent switch to a private account. 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."

“We hope that people understand that, although these fan pages have good intentions, they make moving forward harder since they are constant reminders,” she continued, adding that she and Vanessa cannot go public until “until the fan pages stop”.

Natalia concluded the post: “We love all of your sweet intentions and we hope you understand.”

Previously, Vanessa has shared photos of Kobe and Gianna on Instagram to mark special occasions, such as her daughter’s birthday and her and Kobe’s 19th wedding anniversary.