Aoki Lee Simmons has no regrets about publicly calling out her father, hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, over alleged abusive behavior. In a new cover story interview for Teen Vogue‘s September Issue, the 21-year-old model explains the reason she chose to put her dad on blast via social media earlier this year.
“I don’t regret it,” she tells the mag about her explosive Instagram posts shared in June. Taking to Instagram Live at the time, Aoki said of her father, “You cannot just abuse your kids behind closed doors and not take accountability. You don’t get to do this.” She also shared multiple screenshots of text messages with her father where he appears to call her mother, Kimora Lee Simmons, a “piece of sh**” as well as a silenced video of him yelling at her via FaceTime.
In her caption, the Harvard grad wrote, “My father is not well, for years, he needs help and won’t accept that he refuses to acknowledge he is not himself. He has threatened and bullied my sister, my grandma, he has harassed my grandma in the middle of the night in poor health, send a man to my sisters apartment at 2am to scare her. He lashes out at ANYONE who does not say ‘oh Russell everything is fine.’ Well it’s not fine. If ‘I never get a fashion job again’ like he threatens, I’ll be a lawyer I guess and work in criminal Justice. Sure I love my job but if he takes it away from me I won’t die. You don’t threaten my sister and grandma and mother and say ‘who’s gonna believe you I’m Russell Simmons nobody thinks I’m crazy’ well he is.”
Aoki’s posts have since been deleted.
“Part of it was already out there,” she now says of the hubbub, which also included posts from her mother and older sister, Ming Lee Simmons. “There were reasons I thought it was reasonable to publish, because it was playing out in, like, a silent bubble.”
While the drama has played out on a public stage, Aoki insists that they are a “normal family” undergoing a normal family conflict.
She also reveals that a celebrity recently offered her words of support about the familial discord. She does not reveal the individual’s identity.
“[That celebrity was] like, ‘Oh, I saw your thing. I did the same thing when I was, like, 20, and it was fine,'” she shares.
Kimora and Russell got married in 1998 and split up in 2006. She filed for divorce two years later in 2008.
Following Aoki’s June post, the Def Jam Records co-founder responded with a public apology.
“God is testing you a little bit, it’s ok, be strong. . . they are called growing pains . . . as you know, we grow through adversity and struggle,” the 65-year-old wrote. “You read my books and heard me preach your whole childhood . . . reach back to old lessons and remember to remember ‘smile and breathe’ ❤️ ‘smile and breathe’ . . . you are the watchers of this world . . . so let go . . . be at ease . . . God is driving and he is working on you ❤️.”
Russell also seemingly addressed Aoki’s videos directly. “DEEPLY sorry for being frustrated and yelling,” he wrote.
Aoki has become a candid and unfiltered presence on social media, making headlines again in July for unleashing a tirade against Keke Palmer’s partner, Darius Daulton Jackson, following his comments about her outfit from Usher’s Las Vegas residency.
“I would love the chance to like punch that man…I am appalled. No couth,” she said in part. “Not one drop of couth. Like there’s so many things wrong with it but the way he did it was insane. What he had to say was f**king stupid, and the way he did it was so unhinged. And the follow up was unhinged. Don’t ever talk about Akeelah again. Ever. Disgusting and it makes me sick because she gave that man a beautiful child and he is yapping on the internet. Why do men talk, ever? Just never talk again.”
Aoki now tells Teen Vogue that she has since reached out to offer an apology to Palmer. She also deleted her comments after they were picked up by media outlets.
“She told me, ‘I’m fine,'” Aoki says of her chat with the Nope star. “She was really sweet about it, like, ‘Speak your mind.'”
ET was with Aoki, Ming and Kimora earlier this year, with the trio opening up about their plans for the future and hesitation to return to reality TV. See the interview below.
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