It appears the legal battle between Vanessa Bryant and the sports drink brand Body Armor has finally come to a close.
Suggested Reading
On Tuesday, she was awarded $1.5 million in a case she continued after her late husband Kobe Bryant’s passing, per TMZ Sports. The suit stemmed from a 2019 filing from the president of Kobe Inc. Molly Carter, who sued the NBA star alleging that he promised she’d get a two percent cut from the deal he signed with BodyArmor back in 2013. For context, Kobe reportedly invest $6 million in the brand before it got acquired by Coca-Cola, which in turn, turned into a $400 million return on investment for him. Kobe denied ever having made that promise.
When Molly didn’t receive her cut, she sued him six months before his tragic passing. However, Vanessa continued on, defending her husband’s position and countersued, claiming that she “violated the duty of loyalty and the non-disparagement clause in her employment contract by trash-talking” about her husband and her family. Specifically, Vanessa alleged that Molly called her husband: “asshole,” “douche nugget,” and a “dick wad.” She claimed Molly called her a: “fucking devil,” “bitch” and a “PSYCHO,” and went so far as to describe their newborn child as having “botox lips.”
In the end, the Los Angeles judge ruled in Vanessa’s favor and both suits went to arbitration where she was eventually awarded nearly $1.5 million in attorneys fees. This marks the second legal victory this year for the Bryant family. As previously reported by The Root, back in March, she reached a settlement with Los Angeles County over the gruesome photos that were taken and shared at the crash site, where her husband and daughter Gianna died. She was awarded $28.85 million.
Straight From 
Sign up for our free daily newsletter.