Reality star Kimora Lee Simmons shares candid reaction to daughter, 21, dating man 44 years her senior
Kimora Lee Simmons has revealed her reaction to finding out her daughter, Aoki Lee Simmons, was in a 44-year age-gap relationship.
Last April, Harvard graduate Aoki Lee was romantically linked to 65-year-old restaurateur Vittorio Assaf, founder of Serafina Restaurant Group.
They reportedly first crossed paths on the Caribbean island of Saint Barthélemy, a regular family vacation spot for the Simmonses, with sources telling People that they were ‘spending time together’.
Photos of the pair kissing on the beach soon began to circulate, as per Page Six. However, People later reported that the two had since called things off.
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When entrepreneur Kimora, who shares Aoki and her sister, Ming Lee, with ex-husband Russell Simmons, discovered that her 21-year-old daughter was dating an older man, she was rather shocked.
Appearing on Amanda Hirsch's Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast, Kimora shared her candid response to the reportedly short-lived relationship.
On her 'real-time' reaction to the revelation, the reality TV star said: "I let my kids make their own mistakes.... 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."
The Life in the Fab Lane star went on to say that while she knew him 'growing up myself', she 'didn’t know this guy in that capacity like with my kid or that you were even dating my kid'.
Hirsch then asked her: "Were you like, 'What the hell are you doing to Aoki,' or no?"
To which Kimora admitted that she did react that way, but as the relationship happened so fast, she was worried about misstepping as a mom.
"It was this fast,” she said. “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."
She added: "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. So that was what was so shocking."
Kimora continued: "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.”
She went on to brand large age-gap relationships as 'predatorial' based on her own past experiences.
"I feel like...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."
UNILAD has approached Assaf for comment.
Topics: Podcast, Celebrity, Sex and Relationships
Ellie Kemp