A federal jury found Wednesday that Los Angeles County must pay Vanessa Bryant $16 million for emotional distress caused by deputies and firefighters sharing photos of the bodies of the NBA star and his daughter taken at the site of the 2020 helicopter crash that killed them.

The nine jurors who returned the unanimous verdict agreed with Vanessa Bryant and her attorneys that the photos of the remains of Kobe Bryant and their 13-year-old daughter Gianna invaded her privacy and brought her emotional distress.

Who is Vanessa Bryant?

Vanessa
Marie Bryant is a former American model and philanthropist. She is the widow
of NBA legend Kobe Bryant, who died in a helicopter crash alongside his daughter Gianna Bryant in January 2020.

Born on May
5, 1982, in Huntington Beach, California, Bryant is of Mexican and Irish,
English and German descent. She attended St. Boniface Parochial School in 1996 and was a member of the varsity cheerleading squad before transferring to
Marina High School. She graduated with honors in 2000. Bryant has made
appearances in numerous music videos for artists such as Tyrese, Ludacris,
Pharrell, and Snoop Dogg.

On April
18, 2001, she married NBA superstar Kobe Bryant. Vanessa was 18 years old
at that time. Their daughter, Natalia Diamante, was born in 2003. Due to an
ectopic pregnancy, Vanessa suffered a miscarriage in the spring of 2005. On May
1, 2006, she gave birth to Gianna. On December 16, 2011, Vanessa filed for
divorce, citing irreconcilable differences, and the couple requested joint
custody of their daughters. On January 11, 2013, she announced via social media
that they had called off their divorce. Their third daughter, Bianka Bella, was
born in 2016. Their fourth daughter, Capri, was born in 2019, just six months
before her father and sister tragically passed away.

On January
26, 2020, Kobe and Gianna died in a helicopter crash near Calabasas,
California.