Lee and Simmons were married for eight years before splitting in 2006
NEED TO KNOW
- Kimora Lee opens up about her tumultuous love life in a new Lifetime documentary, Kimora Lee: On Her Own, premiering on Sept. 20
- The former supermodel and Baby Phat founder recalls her early modeling days and how pal Tyra Banks tried to stop her from dating Russell Simmons
- In hindsight, “She was trying to protect me,” Lee says
Kimora Lee isn’t holding back in her upcoming Lifetime documentary.
Ahead of the premiere of Kimora Lee: On Her Own, the former supermodel, Baby Phat founder and mother of five tells PEOPLE about an instance shared in the documentary in which fellow supermodel Tyra Banks tried to run interference in her love life.
In the mid-‘90s, Lee, now 51, was fresh off making a splash in Paris as the face of Chanel and was new to the New York City modeling scene. It wasn’t long before she gained a local superfan.
Credit: Dominik Bindl/FilmMagic
“When I was doing the fashion shows, he would always be front row at the end, like standing up and so loudly clapping and cheering and doing all of these commotions,” she says in the documentary of music exec and Phat Farm mogul Russell Simmons.
She adds in the doc, “I definitely was like, ‘Who is the weird guy at the end of the runway?’ And then he would come backstage, and that’s weird. ‘You let these men come backstage — what are you doing? We’re changing.’ But that’s how it was. I was 16 years old when I met that man. He was 18 years older than me.”
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Lee, who started to receive large flower arrangements from Simmons, says in the doc that fellow model and new friend Banks felt the need to intervene. In one instance, she says, “I remember Tyra kept me in her apartment through the weekend trying to avoid me going home and checking my voicemail.”
Credit: Frank Micelotta/Getty
Thinking back, Lee tells PEOPLE, “I felt a little bit like she was hating for sure, just because she was getting in my way and getting on my nerves.” She speculates, “I’m sure he had already tried to date her and had gone through the whole thing with her and probably so many other girls. I’m sure this was a ritual.”
Lee continues, “I thought she was a little bit hating, but just how a girlfriend would do. She was trying to protect me. I remember I went off with her that first weekend. I went to her house and spent the night like we often did and hung out. Back then you didn’t have a cell phone. You had to get home to get your messages. I just couldn’t get to my messages. But he did call.”
A representative for Banks did not immediately return PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Lee admits thinking to herself, “Even if the guy did the same thing to her like, oh well, what does she know?”
She explains, “We think everything is going to be different. My time is going to be different. Or whatever crazy thing we think.”
Credit: Steven Simione for A+E Global Media
Lee says that in her case, hindsight is 20/20. She went on to marry Simmons in 1998, with Banks, 52, serving as a bridesmaid. The couple welcomed daughters Ming Lee and Aoki, the latter becoming Banks’ goddaughter. But Lee and Banks haven’t spoken in years, Lee revealed recently.
As for Simmons, Lee describes an overall tumultuous relationship with the mogul, claiming he was verbally abusive for much of their time together. The pair separated in 2006 and finalized their divorce in 2009.
“I didn’t even realize it was abusive until I started putting the pieces together,” Lee tells PEOPLE. “I was living in a time when those things were very normal, financial abuse or emotional abuse or whatever.”
A representative for Simmons did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment on Lee’s claims.
Credit: Steven Simione for A+E Global Media
In recent years, Simmons, who relocated to Bali, has faced multiple sexual assault allegations from women in his past. In a previous statement to PEOPLE, Simmons “vehemently” denied all the allegations, saying that all his “relations have been consensual” and the “horrific accusations have shocked me to my core.”
Lee says she was unaware of the allegations until they surfaced after their relationship ended. Simmons and Lee were recently engaged in a legal battle over stocks they shared, but she tells PEOPLE that it has since been resolved.
Asked whether she is worried that the new documentary will exacerbate longstanding tensions between herself and Simmons, Lee says, “I don’t give a damn about him or his drawls. We are done. And I’m used to it. He always has something to say. ‘I made her. I discovered her. Hear me roar from f—–g Bali.’ That’s what he’s going to say.”
Kimora Lee: On Her Own premieres on Sunday, Sept. 20, at 8 p.m. ET on Lifetime.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.
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