Vanessa Bryant pays tribute to late Kobe Bryant on Father’s Day

‘To the best girl dad - Happy Father’s Day, Papi’

Vanessa Bryant paid tribute to her late husband, Kobe Bryant, on the second Father’s Day after his death by calling him “the best girl dad.”

The 41-year-old NBA star and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others died on 26 January 2020 when the helicopter they were travelling in crashed in Calabasas, California.

The mother of four took to Instagram to honour the basketball player by sharing a photograph of him sitting alongside his four daughters. She wrote: “To the best girl dad - Happy Father’s Day, Papi. We love you forever and always, always and forever. Love you always, Nani, Gigi, B.B, Koko and VB.”

Earlier this year, Vanessa opened up about her continued grief over the deaths of her husband and daughter describing the pain as “unimaginable”.

She told People Magazine that she is unsure if she can “survive to the next”, but that she and Kobe’s daughters Natalia, 18, Bianka, four, and Capri, 20 months, keep her moving and smiling “through the pain”.

“This pain is unimaginable [but] you just have to get up and push forward,” she said. “Lying in bed crying isn’t going to change the fact that my family will never be the same again. But getting out of bed and pushing forward is going to make the day better for my girls and for me. So that’s what I do.”

According to the 39-year-old mother, who spoke with the outlet for the cover story of the Women Changing the World issue, the memories of the late basketball star and their daughter, who went by the nickname Gigi, also motivate her to keep going and “be better” each day.

“They inspire me to try harder and be better every day. Their love is unconditional and they motivate me in so many different ways,” she said, describing their lasting inspiration as “finding the light in darkness”.

In January, Vanessa marked the one-year anniversary of the accident on Instagram, where she shared a letter one of Gigi’s friends had written to her before adding that she misses her “baby girl and Kob-Kob so much, too”.