‘DESERVED DIGNITY’

Teary Vanessa Bryant Testifies About Photo Leak: ‘I Live in Fear Every Day’

“I don’t ever want to see these photographs,” she said Friday, saying she lives in constant fear they'll surface online.

Vanessa Bryant sobbed on the stand Friday as she recalled the moment she learned that graphic images of her late husband, Kobe Bryant, and daughter Gianna were being shared among first responders in Los Angeles. When she read a report from the Los Angeles Times detailing the photos sent—of mangled bodies after their tragic helicopter crash—she said she ran outside so her surviving children wouldn’t see her bawl. “I wanted to run… down the block and just scream,” she said. Bryant, who hasn’t seen the images herself, said she lives in constant fear that the photos will surface online. “I live in fear. I live in fear every day of seeing on social media and having these images pop up,” she testified. “I don’t ever want to see these photographs. I want to remember them as they were.” Bryant, 40, was testifying as part of federal lawsuit she filed against Los Angeles County, seeking an unspecified amount in damages for emotional stress she says first responders caused her by failing to contain the spread of the graphic photos.