Vanessa Bryant has scored big in a lawsuit involving her late husband Kobe Bryant. The legal victory is the result of a deal that was first put in motion in 2013 with sports drink company BodyArmor.
Today (June 27), TMZ Sports was the first to report the breaking news. In 2013, Kobe invested $6 million into BodyArmor. The terms of the trade meant that the Lakers legend would make 10 percent interest from sales of the beverage. However, when the brand was sold a few years later to Coca-Cola for $5.6 billion, his investment paid off, allegedly to the tune of $400 million. Enter Molly Carter, president of Kobe Inc., who claimed the sports star promised her two percent of his earnings.
Things got messy when Kobe refuted her allegations in 2019, six months before he and his daughter Gianna Bryant were tragically killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California with several other passengers. The massive loss didn’t stop the lawsuit, and Vanessa stepped in and filed her own counterclaim, “alleging Molly violated the duty of loyalty and the non-disparagement clause in her employment contract,” per TMZ. The mother of four accused Carter of calling her late husband an “a**hole,” a “douche nugget,” and a “d**k wad.” There are also reports of Carter referring to Vanessa as the “f**king devil,” a “b**ch” and “PSYCHO,” even making fun of the Bryant’s newborn daughter for having “botox lips.”
Carter also allegedly made race-related comments, saying she was around “a lot of fancy-a** Black people” during a company-sponsored private jet ride to a past NBA All-Star game. “If it wasn’t for Kobe Bryant’s vision and belief, BodyArmor would not have been able to achieve the success we had. I couldn’t be more excited to become part of the Coca-Cola family and set our sights on the future,” BodyArmor co-founder Mike Repole said at the time of the initial deal. Today, Vanessa was awarded more than $1.5 million in attorney’s fees.