Kimora Lee Simmons says Tyra Banks tried to keep her away from Russell Simmons when she was 16. The anecdote arrives as Kimora Lee: On Her Own heads toward release, adding a new account to a relationship that later became public history. Lee said Banks kept her in an apartment all weekend and blocked her from checking voice messages.
Kimora Lee Simmons at 16
16 years old was the age Lee said she first met Russell Simmons, who was 18 years older than her. She recalled that he showed up at her fashion shows, sat in the very front row at the end of the catwalk, stood up, clapped loudly, and cheered. She also said he sent large bouquets of flowers, a detail that fits the pattern of a pursuit playing out in public while she was still a teenager.
51 years old was Lee’s age at the time of the report, and she used the documentary to revisit how that attention looked from the inside. “Who is that strange man sitting at the end of the runway?” she said she thought at first. “Whenever I walked the runway, he would always sit in the very front row at the end of the catwalk. He would stand up from his seat, clap loudly, and cheer.”
Tyra Banks in the apartment
“I remember Tyra keeping me locked in her apartment all weekend. She was trying to prevent me from returning home and checking my voice messages,” Lee said. She later added that she first read Banks’s behavior as jealousy, then came to a different view: “Back then, I thought Tyra was a bit jealous because she was getting in my way and being annoying. But looking back now, I realize she was trying to protect me.”
That change in interpretation is the center of the story. What first looked like interference now reads like an attempt to interrupt a relationship between a 16-year-old and a man she described as 18 years older, and the documentary gives her a place to say that plainly.
Kimora Lee: On Her Own
1998 was the year Lee married Simmons, with Banks serving as a bridesmaid. The relationship later fell apart: they separated in 2006 and finalized their divorce in 2009. Lee also said she and Banks have not been in contact for several years, which makes the anecdote land less like gossip and more like a recovered piece of the record.
What comes next is the documentary itself, and that is the point for readers tracking this story: Lee is using Kimora Lee: On Her Own to place the runway, the private messages, and the later divorce in one timeline. She said Simmons may have approached Banks the same way, adding that she thought at the time, “Even if he did the same with Tyra, it would be different with me.”
