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"It went from 0 to 100 really quick, and I was like, 'Aoki, I didn't even know this was a thing,'" the mom of five recalls, sharing her thoughts on a then-21-year-old Aoki's fling with restaurateur Vittorio Assaf, then 65, in April 2024.
Kimora Lee Simmons is reflecting on her daughter Aoki Lee Simmons' brief romance with a man -- who is 44 years her senior -- last year.
On Tuesday's episode of the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast, the reality star shared her thoughts on Aoki, 23, dating restaurateur Vittorio Assaf in April 2024. At the time, Aoki was 21, and Assaf was 65, with photos of the pair kissing on a beach in St. Barts being published online.
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View StoryWhen Hirsch asked Kimora, 50, about her reaction to seeing the photos "in real time," she replied, "I let my kids make their own mistakes, like I said. That’s the whole thing we were saying about living out your life in public, and I think that's very, very, very tough. I don't even think that was a moment for them, though. Or I should say the opposite. I think it was just that -- a moment. I don't think it was anything else."
"First of all, I know this guy," she continued. "But I didn't know this guy in that capacity, like with my kid, or that you were even dating my kid. I know this guy growing up myself. He's a restaurateur. I don't know, I don't want to get into troubles, legally, but I think his reputation probably precedes him. Is that okay to say legally?"
After Hirsch suggested that Kimora asked her daughter "what the helly" she was doing, the Baby Phat founder admitted, "I was, but I didn't say it in that way because it was this fast [snaps fingers]. And it blew up to be so much, so then you can't be the mom that's like, 'What the hell are you doing?' But that definitely was the thing."
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"But it went from 0 to 100 really quick, and I was like, 'Aoki, I didn't even know this was a thing.' ... I found out when the world found out," Kimora added. "So that was what was so shocking. And you can't say as a mom, and I've learned all these crazy things. You can't give the, 'I told you so,' right now. You can't give the, 'What the hell are you doing’ right now. You can't give those things right now.”
The Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane star said that it was "a lot" for Aoki, before sharing her general thoughts on age gap relationships.
"I do think in general, of those kinds of things, I feel like, and having gone through not exactly the same but similar … that big age gap relationship, let's just call it that. I do think it’s predatorial," she said, adding, "We said all of that to get to what Kimora thinks about it. I think that's predatorial and kinda crazy."
After PDA photos of Aoki and Assaf surfaced online in April 2024, the model appeared to react to the backlash on her Instagram Stories at the time.
She shared a selfie, in which she posed for the photo while looking away from the camera.
"Errr well now I know why folks were calling me," she wrote over the photo, according to The Shade Room.
Just a few days after their romance went viral, a source told People that the couple had split.
"Not only is it 'over', it was never a thing," they told the outlet at the time. "Aoki is learning to navigate her private life in a public sphere. And that can be difficult. However, Kimora was concerned to see her daughter in that kind of relationship due to what she herself went through."
Kimora shares Aoki and daughter Ming, 25, with ex Russell Simmons. She's also mom to son Kenzo, 16, with Djimon Hounsou, and welcomed sons Gary, 15, and Wolf, 10, during her past marriage to Tim Leissner.
