Kobe Bryant's widow has blasted her mother for filing a "hurtful" lawsuit against her weeks before the first anniversary of her husband and daughter's helicopter crash deaths.
Vanessa Bryant has accused Sofia Laine of trying to "extort a financial windfall" from her family in a suit she filed in California on Tuesday.
In the legal documents, Laine claims she worked as an unpaid "personal assistant and nanny" for the family, and before her son-in-law's death in January, he had promised to take care of her "for the rest of her life".
"Unfortunately, Kobe Bryant's promises did not see the light of day as he is now deceased, and Vanessa Bryant took each and every step she could to void and cancel all of Kobe Bryant's promises made to (Laine)," the complaint reads.
"Vanessa Bryant did not intend to honor any of the Bryants' representations, agreements and promises at any stage," it goes on.
Vanessa has fired back at her mum in a new statement, obtained by People magazine, claiming Laine is "continuing to try and find ways to extort a financial windfall from our family".
"I have supported her for nearly 20 years, and she was never my or Kobe's personal assistant, nor was she a nanny," said Vanessa.
"I have always been a stay-at-home mother and my husband and I were our daughters' full-time caregivers," she went on.
Sharing that the couple arranged for Laine to live in a nearby property after a divorce, Vanessa explained: "My husband and I felt it was best for (Laine) not to live in our home. She watched our girls from time to time, just like most grandparents do. She did not take care of business issues or expenses."
Vanessa then noted: "(Laine) now wants to back-charge me $96 per hour for supposedly working 12 hours a day for 18 years for watching her grandchildren. In reality, she only occasionally babysat my older girls when they were toddlers."
She added: "Her claims are obviously false but I still tried, repeatedly, to work things out with my mother."
