- - Russell Simmons Responds to Ex Kimora Lee Simmons’ Claims That She Doesn’t Have a Relationship with Her Kids’ Fathers

Desiree AnelloDecember 15, 2025 at 4:15 AM

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Russell Simmons; Kimora Lee Simmons -

Russell Simmons responded to his ex-wife Kimora Lee Simmons’ claims that she doesn't have a relationship with her kids’ dads

“I have been fighting for my kids love and my bread,” Russell wrote, in part, in his response on social media

Kimora met him as a high schooler at New York Fashion Week in 1992, married him in 1998 and split from him in 2006

Russell Simmons says he’s been “fighting” for the love of his and Kimora Lee Simmons’ kids.

After the model-turned-fashion mogul, 50, recently told PEOPLE that she doesn’t “have a relationship really” with her kids’ fathers, her ex-husband, 68, responded, in part, by saying “there are two sides to every story.”

“I gave u 50,000 a month for 20 years,” Russell, who shares daughters Ming Lee, 25, and Aoki Lee, 23, with Kimora, wrote on Threads on Dec. 14. “I was ur best /only friend. I’m the godfather to your other 3 kids, until one day you stole my stock.”

“I have been fighting for my kids love and my bread ever since,” he continued. “You threatened that if I sued you, I would never speak to my kids again. There are two sides to every story.”

Kimora’s rep did not immediately reply to PEOPLE's request for comment.

The Kimora: Back in the Fab Lane star also shares son Kenzo Lee, 16, with actor Djimon Hounsou, 61; and son Wolfe Lee, 10, with former investment banker Tim Leissner, 54, who was sentenced to two years in prison earlier this year after he pleaded guilty to bribery and money laundering charges.

Beyond claiming that she did not maintain relationships with the fathers of her children, Kimora also told PEOPLE that she credits her “village” of “friends and family and people my kids can rely on” for helping her through.

"Usually I would say that I co-parent okay, but the kids are with me full-time," she explained. "I'm pretty much the primary parent. It's difficult, but I don't know sometimes what other people are thinking. Guys are weird."

"Ming and Aoki are older, but I think they still feel very much like I'm 'mom,' and I think that's okay," she added. "For sure they can come to me. They live at home, they travel the world and they have a place in New York."

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Russell Simmons and Kimora Lee Simmons in 2010

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Kimora also emphasized that her “life doesn’t ever revolve around a guy, ever.”

"I am thankful I'm able to be there for my family in ways that other people or parents are not," she said. "If I wasn't this person, I don't know if we would've made it or if we would be okay. It's been very important to me to be strong and self-reliant, and to constantly be growing."

Kimora and Russell, who married in 1998 and split in 2006 before their divorce was finalized in 2009, were at the center of another controversy involving their daughters in June 2023 when the fashion mogul backed up her daughter Aoki’s allegations that the former Def Jam Recordings executive would “threaten” her boyfriend and friends if she blocked him or “[took] some space.”

"I'm so sorry to have to do this," Kimora wrote on her Instagram Stories at the time, going on to accuse him of being “abusive” to the women in his life. "This man has been threatening my kids' lives. I'm hearing so much more now. We won't be bullied threatened or afraid."

She continued, "Leave my kids alone. This narrative of attacking the only caregiver, the only parent in the home with the kids, the mom, AND the kids for one's own shortcomings and embarrassments is dead. Dead. Dead."

on People

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”