Juneteenth 2023 was one to remember for a number of reasons and Kimora Lee Simmons’ family hashing out their issues online is one of them. Weeks after that situation played out, and the debates that came from it, Simmons provided an update on how she and her daughters are fairing.
“I’m always okay. You guys know I’m a tough chick,” she told reporters this past weekend at our very own Essence Festival of Culture. “We’ve been through a difficult time and I like for people to say, ‘I love Aoki. We love Ming.’”
Simmons took to social media to inform fans that her ex-husband and co-founder of Def Jam Records, Russell Simmons, 65, stopped financially supporting her daughters and has been threatening them. Preceding that, her daughter Aoki Lee Simmons, 20, publicly outed Russell, tearfully claiming that he often lashed out at her and her sister Ming. Russell replied to them with a brief message to his daughters, saying, “God is testing you a little bit” and “be strong.”
The former model went on to tell reporters at Essence Fest the key lessons she wants her daughters to get from their recent challenges.
“I want the girls to know, because they’re young and impressionable, that it’s okay, people go through things. The world loves you. If somebody forms an opinion of you based on two seconds of something they don’t know, then you’re not missing them,” she said.
Kimora, 48, also touched on an important point about the universality of single parenting. Many times, when celebrity single parents speak out about the reality of their situation, as she has, they often get criticized because they have money and fame.
“I have famous friends who’ll say ‘I’m a single mom, it’s so tough,’ and the next day they get rammed in the press [with people saying], ‘How can you say this? Your life is not like our life,’ and that is not true,” she said.
She continued, “If you are a single parent, you understand what single parents go through. You understand that family unit, you understand that struggle. You understand that having children is like having a broke bestie: You love them to death but they can never contribute to the dinner. Those things are universal.”
Russell and Kimora split up more than a decade ago in 2009. In addition to her oldest two children, she also has three other children from previous relationships. She had her son Kenzo with actor and model Djimon Hounsou and son Wolf Lee Leissner with her ex-husband and banker Tim Leissner.