Culture
Kimora Lee Simmons Explains What Motivated Her to Come Back to Reality TV
Kimora Lee Simmons is back on reality TV with Kimora: Back in the Fab Lane
Kimora Lee Simmons is getting back into the grind. The former reality TV star is coming back to the small screen with her new show, Kimora: Back in the Fab Lane, which will be aired on E! from Dec. 2. But it was not exactly the lane change that the 50-year-old whose new series is her first in more than ten years, was expecting.
“I feel like people around me are like, ‘Oh God, you’re so unbelievable ,’ she said to E! News in an exclusive interview. “‘This is so much going on. You should have cameras.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ve been there, done that.’ But people are like, ‘No, no, I’m really serious.'”
It wasn’t long before the offhand suggestion was turned into something more definite. “That ‘I’m really serious’ talk leads to ‘here we go, we just need you to have a little meeting,'” Kimora explained. “And I’m like, ’Really?'”
Kimora Lee Simmons on Being a Mom of Five When Returning to TV
Anyway, Kimora, as a mom of five, certainly has a lot going on: she has two daughters Ming Lee Simmons, 25, and Aoki Lee Simmons, 23, from her marriage with ex-husband Russell Simmons; a 16-year-old son Kenzo Lee Hounsou with Djimon Hounsou; a 10-year-old son Wolfe Lee with ex-husband Tim Leissner; and a 15-year-old son Gary Lee, whom she adopted in 2020. So, basically, a lot of things have been changed since her last reality show.
“I was a mom of two,” she recalled. “I am a mom of five now, and I also have a lot of other kids in my neighborhood. I have also changed my career a few times, husbands, and investments. People have grown older – I’m a boy mom now, I was a girl mom before. People have their driver’s licenses.”
Kimora Lee Simmons on convincing her kids to join her new reality show
Kimora Lee Simmons shared that it wasn’t an easy task to convince her elder children to support her new reality show.
“They were excited,” she said, but on her own she admitted, “I had to bribe them,” implying a sports car and “a wardrobe of fancy stuff to wear.”
The Baby Phat founder thought of her daughters, Ming and Aoki, as “little shell shock” because they were so young during her last reality TV.
“Now it’s their different time, different view of the world. They are young adults, so I am not there to protect them and do everything.” She said, “It’s been a journey.”
Kimora’s children are realizing her cultural impact not only because the new show is coming up but also because the old shows are still popular.
“People coming in, like, ‘I remember you in—or you did this’,” she said. “It’s funny. I think they like it.”
