Kimora Lee Simmons is speaking candidly about her daughter Aoki Lee Simmons’ former romance with a man 44 years her senior.
Appearing on the “Not Skinny But Not Fat” podcast this week, the Baby Phat founder and reality TV personality was asked how she first reacted upon learning Aoki Lee Simmons, then 21, had begun dating 65-year-old restaurateur Vittorio Assaf nearly two years ago.
At first, Kimora Lee Simmons seemed taken aback when host Amanda Hirsch described the relationship as “a big deal for pop culture,” but noted, “I let my kids make their own mistakes.”
“First of all, I know this guy. But I didn’t know this guy in that capacity like with my kid or that you were even dating my kid,” she explained in a clip from the podcast, per People. “I know this guy growing up myself. He’s a restaurateur. I don’t want to get into troubles legally, but I think his reputation probably precedes him. Is that OK to say legally? So I was learning some of these things as I went along, too.”
Assaf, who is the co-founder of New York’s Serafina Restaurant Group, and Aoki Lee Simmons were first romantically linked in April 2024 when the two were spotted together in St. Barths.
Though Aoki Lee Simmons is a professional model who has appeared in Vogue and other outlets, her romantic partners prior to Assaf were not public figures. Assaf, however, had previously dated model Nya Gatbel, who was 22 at the time.
Though Assaf and Simmons’ romance drew heavy media scrutiny, it was also short-lived, with the two reportedly going their separate ways less than a month after their Caribbean getaway.
“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,” Kimora Lee Simmons said. “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.”
After comparing Assaf to Leonardo DiCaprio and other male public figures known to date younger women, Kimora Lee Simmons acknowledged that she, too, had experienced a “big age-gap relationship” in the past.
“I do think it’s predatorial,” she added.
A mother of five, Kimora Lee Simmons told TMZ last year that she felt Aoki Lee Simmons had been “set up a little bit,” but did not elaborate.
“She’s a young, pretty girl, and we don’t think that the toads that we kiss is going to be, like, broadcast,” she said. “I was probably a little bit embarrassed, but you know me, I’m definitely like, ‘It is what it is, honey. Come on home, let’s go. Mama’s got your back.’”
