Kobe Bryant was considering divorcing his young wife almost four months before he allegedly raped a teenage hotel employee at a posh Colorado spa, it was reported yesterday.

The five-time NBA All-Star contacted a divorce lawyer in March – and when the Los Angeles Laker’s wife, Vanessa Bryant, found out, she had to be rushed to a California hospital, Newsweek said.

Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, Calif., has said only that an “adult woman” was brought to the hospital by ambulance from the Bryants’ Newport Beach home on March 5 and placed on life support.

Vanessa Bryant, 21, has stood by her husband in public, appearing with him at the July 18 news conference in which Bryant tearfully admitted only to committing adultery.

But Newsweek – which offers new details from Kobe Bryant’s camp about the encounter – said the Bryants’ marriage was falling apart before the athlete met the blond concierge.

Bryant, 25, is to appear in a Colorado court Thursday to hear prosecutors lay out their case against him. If Bryant’s lawyers decide to waive the hearing and go straight to trial, the hoops superstar still must appear for a bail hearing.

According to Newsweek, Bryant – an athlete with a choirboy image who once told teammates, “I would never get into trouble like Mike Tyson” – had begun hanging out and drinking with his three bodyguards, at their encouragement, and talking to women.

Sources close to Bryant said he and the concierge began flirting shortly after he checked in on June 30. She gave him a tour, delivered food to his room and agreed to return after work.

The two had sex but Bryant grew anxious because he was not using a condom, Newsweek said. At one point, she allegedly yelled for him to stop – which Bryant’s sources said he did.

She was crying hysterically and insisted on leaving, and Newsweek reports that a panicked Bryant tried to keep her in the room until she calmed down. She left, promising to return, but never did.

That account is starkly different from the one offered by friends of the accuser. One friend told Newsweek the woman was “attacked as soon she walked through the door” and there was “aggressive groping with no warning, followed by sex.”