It’s becoming more common these days for new parents to announce the arrival of their baby on social media. While many parents receive positive messages of support when they share this news, for celebrities it can invite internet trolls to comment.
When Kobe and Vanessa Bryant welcomed their fourth daughter a few weeks ago, trolls couldn’t resist playing into a long-running joke about Kobe’s family.
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Chances are, you know who Kobe Bryant is.
Kobe is one of the most decorated basketball players of all time with multiple NBA championship wins, Olympic gold medals, and NBA MVP titles under his belt. He officially retired from the sport in 2016.
Off the court, Kobe and his wife, Vanessa, have been married for 18 years now.
During that time, they’ve grown their family by welcoming three daughters: Natalia, 16, Gianna, 13, and two-year-old Bianka.
Kobe often shares updates about his daughters on social media.
It looks like his daughters share his passion for basketball, and accompany him to basketball games. He also coaches one of his daughter’s basketball teams.
In January 2019, the couple announced that they were expecting their fourth child.
Congrats to the Bryant family!
In June, they welcomed their fourth daughter, Capri Kobe Bryant (who goes by the nickname, KoKo).
Kobe announced the birth with this photo of a custom baby blanket featuring Capri’s name. Kobe included the hashtags #ByrantBunch and #4Princesses in the post.
He followed up that photo with a picture of baby Capri a few days later.
While Kobe and Vanessa received a flood of positive comments, there were also a few that played up a long-running joke.
The fact that Kobe and Vanessa have four daughters has been a subject of internet trolling in the past.
With the announcement of Capri’s birth, there were comments like this one making fun of Kobe for having four daughters.
Some comments encouraged Kobe to keep trying for a boy.
There were a lot of comments that trolled Kobe by encouraging him to keep “shooting” for a boy.
A few comments made reference to Kobe Jr., missing a significant piece of information in Capri’s birth announcement.
Capri’s middle name is Kobe, so technically, she is Kobe Jr. Bet these trolls didn’t expect that.
Some users even joked about Kobe’s “score”.
This isn’t the first time people have made fun of Kobe for having daughters and he’s addressed these comments in the past.
After the birth of his third daughter, Kobe received similar comments and addressed them in an interview with “People” magazine.
“My friends say, ‘It takes a real man to make a boy,’” he said at the time. “I’m like, ‘Dude, it takes a king to make a princess… get in line.’ “
Well, Kobe shut those comments down pretty fast back then, and he may have made reference to this interview again with Capri’s birth announcement.
In the caption for Capri’s birth announcement Kobe wrote, “Our little princess…” I see what you did there, Kobe!
He also made another royal reference with his first Instagram announcement of Capri’s birth.
He used the hashtag #4Princesses, remember? I think we’re going to see this hashtag being used often by Kobe from now on.
In another interview, Kobe mentioned that people will tell him in person that he needs to, “have a boy” to carry on the family’s basketball tradition.
What these people don’t realize is that one of Kobe’s daughters is an aspiring basketball player herself.
“She’s like, ‘I got this. Don’t need no boy for that. I got this,'” he said .
People can joke and troll Kobe for having daughters all they want, but it’s clear that he knows the true value of being a dad to daughters.
It’s great to see him standing up for his daughters and shutting the haters down.
