Kimora Lee Simmons has broken her silence on her daughter Aoki Lee Simmons’ brief fling with restaurateur Vittorio Assaf, calling the relationship “predatorial and kinda crazy.” The 65-year-old Baby Phat founder spoke candidly on the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast with Amanda Hirsch, reflecting on the St Barths PDA photos that went viral in April 2024.
Simmons said she was blindsided by the pairing, learning about it alongside the public. “It went from 0 to 100 really quick, and I was like, Aoki, I didn’t even know this was a thing,” she said.
Drawing from her own experience—she met her first husband, Russell Simmons, at 17 while he was 35—Kimora said the age gap raised red flags. “Having gone through… that big age gap relationship, I do think it’s predatorial. I think that’s predatorial and kinda crazy.”
She also hinted that she was familiar with Assaf before the romance, calling his reputation “probably precedes him.” A source previously described him as an “older man with little boy charm” who has “always loved younger beautiful women.”
Simmons resisted publicly confronting Aoki at the time, mindful of the scrutiny her daughter, a Harvard graduate at just 23, faced. “You can’t give the ‘I told you so’ right now,” she explained. But she didn’t completely hold back, telling reporters she was “embarrassed” by the PDA photos and likening Assaf to a “toad.”
The relationship was fleeting. Within days of reports surfacing, the pair had parted ways. “I don’t even think that was a moment for them—or I should say the opposite,” Simmons said. “I think it was just that: a moment. I don’t think it was anything else.”
Kimora emphasized letting her children learn from their own choices while acknowledging the challenge of watching them navigate mistakes in public.
She is also mother to sons Kenzo, 16, Gary, 15, and Wolfe, 10.
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Last modified: December 10, 2025
