Vanessa Bryant’s Instagram page has become a memorial of sorts as pictures of the family have gained viral interest and her followers have grown by the millions since the helicopter crash that claimed the life of her husband, Kobe Bryant , and daughter, Gianna .
Although her page had been set to private after Sunday’s crash, it opened again earlier this week. On Wednesday, Vanessa took to Instagram to release her first public statement since the tragic accident, sharing a family photo and thanking those who had offered support. Vanessa also changed her Instagram profile picture to one of Kobe and Gianna hugging.
Her page has attracted huge interest since then, jumping by 5 million followers in close to 24 hours. It continued to gain followers on Thursday, increasing at a rate of close to 100,000 every hour. By midday, Vanessa’s follower count reached 7.3 million, up from the close to 1.6 million she had before the tragedy.
Many fans and famous friends alike left comments of support on Vanessa’s public statement.
“We love you,” wrote Ayesha Curry, wife of Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry.
In the time since Vanessa made her page public again, many of the family’s photos have gotten viral interest from followers. Though comments were turned off for many of the uploads, fans showed their support by liking posts that showed the family together. The original post Vanessa shared that thanked those who sent condolences received more than 7.5 million likes. Many of the older photos showing Kobe and Gianna got viral attention as well.
A series of pictures that Vanessa shared earlier this month that captured Gianna playing basketball racked up hundreds of thousands of likes.
The growth has likely made Vanessa’s page one of the fastest-growing in Instagram history. Actress Jennifer Aniston recently set a Guinness World Record by becoming the fastest account to reach 1 million followers, achieving the mark in five hours and 16 minutes.
“Jennifer attracted almost five million followers within 12 hours after her first posting which was a selfie with Lisa Kudrow, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer and Matthew Perry,” the record-keeping organization noted.
Vanessa’s growth between late Wednesday and Thursday late morning appeared to approach that same pace and was boosted by a number of news outlets that covered her initial Instagram post. They also highlighted Vanessa’s promotion of the MambaOnThree Fund, a charity set up through Kobe’s Mamba Sports Foundation that is intended to help other families affected by the tragedy.
