Kimora Lee Simmons Is 'Tough' Amid Feud With Ex, Russell Simmons

Kimora Lee Simmons is keeping her head up!

Although not one whose name usually appears across multiple tabloids for drama, all that changed when Kimora and her daughter Aoki had a social media meltdown while calling out Russell Simmons for his alleged abusive behavior.  Now, weeks later, Kimora appears to be in a better place, glowing and radiating confidence while confirming to fans that she is doing "okay" amid the family dispute.

Over the weekend, Kimora paired a shiny gold minidress with matching heeled sandals, numerous bracelets, and minimal makeup for an appearance on day two of the Essence Festival of Culture in New Orleans on Saturday, July 1st.

Via footage shared in an Instagram Story upload, a moderator was heard asking how the former model was doing. In response, she said, "I'm okay. I'm always okay. I'm a tough chic, I'm a single mom of five kids, that's why I'm here because so many women are here. So much Black girl joy, brown girl joy. all the shades of joy. So it just feels good for me to be in a room like this."

By her last line, the entrepreneur meant that she was delighted to be in a space where she was appreciated and sought after for her fashion efforts.  "It's been like coming home….Everybody's been like 'auntie Kimora, auntie's here….'" Kimora stated during the backstage interview.

This will be the fashion mogul's first public appearance since she appeared on social media to address — even breaking down in tears at one point —  her ex-husband's alleged abuse. Per The Blast, the family feud started right after her eldest child and daughter, Ming, wished her a "Happy Father's Day," instead of Russell. 

The move seemed to displease the Def Jam founder, who retorted with a jab of his own, writing via an Instagram Story, "Stop telling fathers they should have fought harder to see their children & start asking mothers why he had to fight at all."

In turn, his ex-wife took to her Story where she asked him to "leave my kids alone," adding, "This narrative of attacking the only caregiver, the only parent in the home with the kids, the mom, AND the kids for one's own shortcomings and embarrassments is dead. Dead. Dead."

Kimora's additional declaration that her ex-partner's "threats and lies and intimidation manouvers [sic] and tactics are sad" was followed by Aoki sharing a slew of content, allegedly highlighting her father's unacceptable behavior towards his family. While one update featured a FaceTime recording that showed Russell seemingly yelling at his baby girl, another was a heated chat between the father-daughter duo.

Some of the record executive's messages to Aoki insinuated that Kimora had successfully fulfilled her "promise" to "steal" his money and their children's love. Upon seeing the allegations, the 20-year-old vowed that she "will never speak" to Russell until she died.

The drama seemed to diffuse after the Phat Farm creator took to Instagram to offer a cryptic apology to his daughters, claiming that God was "testing" them "a little bit."

Two years before this public attack on Russell, he and Kimora had gone head to head in a legal battle regarding a business investment gone awry. As it turned out, the Tantris founder had asserted that his former lover and her current husband, Tim Leissner, had diverted his shares, worth tens of millions of dollars, of Celsius energy drink to pay off Leissner's bond in connection with federal criminal charges against him.

Responding to the accusations in a statement drawn by her legal team and obtained by The Blast, Kimora claimed she and her kids were "shocked by the extortive harassment coming from her ex-husband, Russell Simmons, who has decided to sue her for shares and dividends of Celsius stock in which Kimora and Tim Leissner invested millions of dollars."

After calling it an "ill-advised attempt by Russell to use the legal system to access funds" he was not entitled to, the statement vowed, "Russell will be held accountable for his serial abuse and we will confront his baseless claims that he is warranted Celsius stock dividends despite his self-admitted zero contribution."

Kimora's team also shared that they were "actively working to put a firm end to his harassment, which continues despite Russell having fled the country – he will face his own reckoning in the US court."