Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna were reportedly laid to rest following a private funeral held on Friday, February 7. According to Extra , the funeral was held at Pacific View Mortuary in Corona Del Mar, California. It is believed that the funeral service was kept small, with only the Bryant family’s closest relatives and friends in attendance.
“Vanessa and the family wanted a private service to mourn their loss. The ceremony was extremely hard for everyone as it’s still hard for them to grasp they lost two beautiful souls,” a source told Entertainment Tonight .
It appears Kobe’s sister Sharia was in town for the funeral, as she appeared in a recent Instagram post uploaded by Vanessa Bryant . The video was of “Auntie Ri-Ri” and Kobe’s 7-month-old daughter, Capri, who is learning how to stand up.
It is presumed that Kobe’s other sister, Shaya, and his parents, Joe and Pam, were also in attendance. Further details about the funeral and burial have not been made available.
A public memorial will be held for Kobe on Monday, February 24 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Vanessa confirmed the date, time, and location of her husband and daughter’s “Celebration of Life” on the same day as the funeral.
It is presumed that the public memorial will be televised, although no details about which network will broadcast the event have been released.
For those who might be wondering if Kobe and Gianna’s caskets will be present at the time of the memorial, the reports do suggest that both of their bodies have been interred. The burial arrangements were not made public and the burial location is unknown.
Vanessa has received an outpouring of love and support following the tragic helicopter crash that claimed the life of her loved ones and seven others. She has been fairly active on social media, taking to Instagram to share her heartbreak and gratitude with her nearly 12 million followers. On Monday, February 10, Vanessa posted a video of her daughter (that included clips of her husband) and shared her emotions in the caption.
“I’ve been reluctant to put my feelings into words. My brain refuses to accept that both Kobe and Gigi are gone. I can’t process both at the same time. It’s like I’m trying to process Kobe being gone but my body refuses to accept my Gigi will never come back to me. It feels wrong,” she wrote in part. The post has been liked more than 10 million times.
Kobe is survived by his wife, Vanessa, and their three girls, Natalia, 17, Bianka, 3, and Capri.