Social media users had their undivided attention diverted to Aoki Lee Simmons and her mother Kimora Lee Simmons a few short months ago.
Both women appear to be moving on since spilling their truths about their family drama and enduring years of abusive behavior from her father, Kimora’s ex-husband Russell Simmons online.
“I don’t regret it,” said Aoki in her first cover story for Teen Vogue. “Part of it was already out there. There were reasons I thought it was reasonable to publish, because it was playing out in, like, a silent bubble,” noted the aspiring model.
A Father’s Day post, shared by Aoki’s older sister Ming Lee, it was sparked a mirage of back and forths between the trio online. Ming paid tribute to their mom Kimora but neglected to acknowledge their father Russell.
It was the catalyst for the messy unraveling of the public’s perception of one of hip-hop’s beloved families. The former record executive and the Baby Phat founder were together for 14 years and married for seven when they parted ways in 1999.
As far as fans could tell, the exes remained the best of friends and shared a non-traditional family unit as Kimora’s love life continued to blossom into two lengthy relationships with exes Djimon Hounsou and Tim Leissner. She welcomed two more biological children and serves as the guardian of a fifth child belonging to a family friend.
However, the veil was lifted from the happy facade when Russell hit back at the holiday snub, claiming Kimora made co-parenting a challenge.
Aoki, 21, and the beauty mogul slammed the Def Jam Recordings founder for his remarks and unleashed accusations of being subjected to Russell’s years of verbal and emotional abuse. She also accused him of threatening to end her buzzing modeling career.
Kimora Lee and her daughters Aoki and Ming are tired of protecting Russell Simmons image and are letting us know he's a broke deadbeat pedo pic.twitter.com/isyNaRaIYl
— Jovi 💋 (@JoviBeauty) June 19, 2023
The emotionally riled-up mother-daughter also shared claims of the yogi being financially destitute and his refusal to shell out money to help his daughters. “Nobody relies on him he’s flat broke and won’t even get me an Uber at night if I’m unsafe,” claimed Aoki.
The Harvard Law graduate’s vulnerable account of her relationship with her father grew even more concerning to fans when she shared a clip of him appearing to verbally berate her.
Yet, calling out her father brought an influx of criticism from Russell’s male supporters, who Aoki blasted them too.
In a since-deleted Instagram Story post, she wrote, “…to all the toxic men in my comments using ‘I’m defending him’ to be foul, and talk about all the grievances you have with women, you can save it.”
Even now, months after the public family meltdown, she chooses not to give her critics much attention. “If you don’t look at it, it’s not at all real,” Aoki told the publication. Kimora has also bounced back from her tearful rant and is keeping her focus on her kids.
On the surface, Kimora and Russell appeared to have a good co-parenting relationship until things went left when he sued her for fraud in 2021. Russell alleges she transferred millions of his Celsius energy drink company shares to help bail out her ex, Tim Leissner.
Leissner and Kimora married in 2014 after he forged court documents to marry the Baby Phat founder, which was discovered in a money laundering case. The disgraced former Goldman Sach banker pleaded guilty and was ordered to pay back $43.7 million. He will be officially sentenced later this year.
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