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No, Kobe Bryant’s daughter Natalia has not died by suicide

On 26 January 2020 US basketball star Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna were killed in a helicopter crash near Calabasas in California, together with seven others.

He was survived by his wife Vanessa Bryant, their three other daughters, and his parents.

Almost a month after Bryant’s shock death, Africa Check debunked a hoax video widely shared on social media claiming that Vanessa Bryant had died by suicide.

And just a few days later the same website started claiming that the couple’s eldest daughter, Natalia Bryant, had killed herself, leaving a video of her death which had been shared on Facebook. 

Did Natalia Bryant die, or is this another clickbait scam like the one we debunked before? We checked.



Redirects to older hoax video


Clicking on the “video” in the new post redirects to the original hoax video. It is exactly the same ploy as before, trying to trick Facebook users into sharing the fake news item. 

The claim is once again attributed to BBC News, but there are no reports of Natalia’s death on the real BBC website. And there are no other reliable news reports of Natalia Bryant’s death, either. – Taryn Willows




 

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