Kimora Lee Simmons Calls Daughter Aoki’s Brief Romance with 65-Year-Old “Predatorial” and “Crazy” [Video]

Kimora Lee Simmons recently opened up about her feelings when her daughter, Aoki Lee, dated then-65-year-old restaurateur Vittorio Assaf in April 2024.

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The entrepreneur shared her perspective during an upcoming episode of the “Not Skinny But Not Fat” podcast with host Amanda Hirsch, addressing both her concern for her daughter and her approach to letting her make her own decisions.

“I let my kids make their own mistakes, like I said. That’s the whole thing we were saying about living out your life in public, and I think that’s very, very, very tough,” she said.

Assaf is the founder of Serafina Restaurant Group, and the two met while vacationing in St. Barths, a destination the Simmons family frequents.

“I know this guy growing up myself. He’s a restaurateur. I don’t know, I don’t want to get into troubles legally but I think his reputation probably precedes him. Is that okay to say legally?” she remarked.

Simmons admitted that the news of the relationship initially shocked her.

“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,” she said. She explained that as a parent, there are limits to how she can respond publicly. “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.”

Despite her concerns, Simmons emphasized her philosophy of allowing her children to make their own mistakes. Reflecting on the nature of the age gap, Simmons labeled the relationship as “predatorial.”

“I do think it’s predatorial and kinda crazy,” she admitted.

A source close to the family confirmed that the brief romance ended shortly after it was publicly reported.

“Not only is it ‘over,’ it was never a thing,” the insider told PEOPLE. “Aoki is learning to navigate her private life in a public sphere. And that can be difficult. However, Kimora was concerned to see her daughter in that kind of relationship due to what she herself went through.”

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kPGO_YGubUk