Dec. 10, 2025, 1:19 p.m. ET
NEW YORK — Kimora Lee Simmons is getting candid about the beginnings of her relationship with ex-husband Russell Simmons.
The former couple met when the Baby Phat creative director was a teenager, and the Def Jam cofounder was 18 years her senior.
“I was in high school, you guys. I was a sophomore,” she tells USA TODAY.
“That’s a hot mess. A hot mess. And now I’m sitting here at this grand old age of 262 saying, ‘That’s a hot mess,'” she adds jokingly. “But when I was younger, I would’ve thought I was grown. You couldn’t tell me anything. Sixteen is 26 – it wasn’t though. And that’s the difference. And you only know that with age.”
But Simmons, now 50, says, “Now being a mother, I think that’s way too young, and what do you know?”
The former model was traveling the world at a young age, starting her high-fashion modeling career at 13 as the youngest Chanel bride in history – meaning the youngest model to close the haute couture show – when Karl Lagerfeld helmed the Parisian fashion house.
“I did it so early,” she says. “I feel like I also had midlife crises super early. Maybe the average person is, I don’t know, 30 or 40 or 50. I was probably 16 having my first one ’cause I started working at 10, so in a lot of ways I thought I was an adult, and I absolutely was not.”
The couple married in 1998, when she was 23, before divorcing in 2009. Russell Simmons has since been accused by at least a dozen women of sexual assault and rape, and he has relocated to Bali, Indonesia, which has no extradition treaty with the U.S.
The former couple share daughters Ming Lee, 25, and Aoki Lee, 23.
Simmons notes that “along the way, I trusted people, and my mom, we trusted people that we probably shouldn’t have, and that’s OK. Most of these people I still know to this day and many of them I love. That’s not the point. I’m not trying to say that. I’m trying to say that when you’re a little bit older, you learn things that you didn’t know when you were in it. …
“I would not choose to get married so young, or some … things I probably wouldn’t have chosen them the exact same way,” she says. “However, it was a time – a time was had, and it was a grand time. I learned a lot. I built a beautiful family. I built a legacy … which I hope will go on and people will have fun with and learn from.”
Despite it all, Simmons is maintaining a positive outlook. “There might be bumps along the way, but I’m very thankful,” she says. “You know how people say, ‘Would you do it all over again?’ I’d probably do it all over again. Maybe not quite so young.”
Simmons’ life and family are on display again as the fashion mogul returns to TV with her E! reality show, “Kimora: Back in the Fab Lane,” nearly 20 years since the debut of her original show, “Life in the Fab Lane.”
“Back in the Fab Lane” marks a new beginning for Simmons and her kids, including sons Kenzo, 16, Gary, 16, and Wolfe, 10, as well as her “bonus son,” 19-year-old Jayden, a former classmate of her son’s who moved in with the family. “I love being a mom so much, but I also just am not the stay at home type,” Simmons says. “I’m going to have to do something.”
How to watch ‘Kimora: Back in the Fab Lane’ season
The show premiered Dec. 4 with back-to-back episodes. New episodes air weekly Tuesdays on E! at 10 p.m. ET/PT, with episodes also streaming on E!’s YouTube channel.
