'I'm not ready to date yet': Newly-single Kimora Lee Simmons on why she's putting her children first and relishing the single life

By Lina Das for MailOnline

Published: 16:24 EST, 21 March 2013 | Updated: 16:24 EST, 21 March 2013

Kimora Lee Simmons could never be described as a woman who does things by halves. Big hair, big heels, big attitude: as she herself says, 'I have a really big mouth, I have a lot of opinions and I will be heard.'

It's a tactic which has propelled her from being the only child of a single mother growing up in St Louis, Missouri, to becoming a Chanel runway model at 13, girlfriend (and subsequent wife) of hip hop mogul Russell Simmons at 17 and now president and creative director of the online fashion website, JustFab.

As she herself explains: 'I'm very determined, honest, open and definitely very energetic. I expect a lot as a boss and I'm very demanding, but I ask that of myself too.'

Doting mother: Kimora Lee Simmons, seen here in 2009 at a New York Fashion show with daughers Ming and  Aoki, from her marriage to Russell Simmons and son Kenzo from her relationship with Dijmon Hounsou

It's an approach to management which we can now see up close in her new reality series, Kimora: House of Fab, which focuses on the day-to-day goings-on of her new fashion empire. It's high-energy, occasionally shouty and eminently watchable and as shoe-related crises and inter-office squabbles rear their heads, Kimora stalks the series like the fierce fashionista we have come to know and love.

'After Life in the Fab Lane [Kimora's previous show] which had sprinklings of my family life in it, I really wanted to show the workings of an office and how a team works together to build a brand,' she says, altogether softer and more quiet than her on-screen persona. 'It's like The Office,' she says, referring to the Ricky Gervais-inspired series, 'but a lot more organised.'

Husband No.2: Kimora and Dijmon, who she split from last year

Admittedly, it's hard to imagine Ricky Gervais's resolutely unfabulous David Brent bestriding the workplace in quite the same fashion as Kimora. Six feet tall and possessed of a singularly exotic beauty (Valentino once likened her to a Gauguin painting) Kimora is possibly the most glamorous 37-year-old mother of three one is ever likely to meet.

Part of her appeal to women lies in her self-confidence and her positive body image (admittedly not difficult to muster when you're as striking as she is), 'but I've faced rejection time and time again and I've been lots of different sizes,' she says.

'I've had times when I've been much bigger and much smaller so that you could see my ribs and I look back at some pictures and it was awful to me. But it's all OK because I'm comfortable with myself now. It's about being healthy and active and having a crazy schedule and running after my three kids, so I probably eat very sporadically – lots of smaller meals and snacks. It's just about having an active lifestyle.'

Keeping busy and juggling various balls is part of Kimora's mantra of 'fabulosity' – a term she famously coined to describe the art of 'being fabulous from the inside out', in every arena from work to romantic relationships to one's inner being and outer appearance.

It has spawned books (Fabulosity: What It Is and How to Get It) and perfumes (Baby Phat Fabulosity) and, says Kimora, 'I came up with that phrase many years ago and people just seem to love it. It's about knowing that we come with so much that is already fabulous but knowing also that we can always improve and be better.

'It's not about how skinny you are or how much money or how many diamonds you have – that's the fluff that people sometimes look at as being the main thing. It's about understanding that the things that make you fabulous are all inside of you.'

Granted, Kimora has a great deal of fabulous exterior fluff to be chuffed about too. She was once believed to have one of the largest Louis Vuitton collections in the world – second only to, well, Louis Vuitton – and though she's all for inner fabulosity, it doesn't stop her being president of an online fashion store selling shoes and bags for outer fabulosity too. But then, if the trappings of her life aren't bad, she has also worked incredibly hard to get there. 

Charting her fashion empire: Seen here in her latest reality show House Of Fab, which just finished airing in the U.S. on the Style Network and is now airing in the UK

Growing up an only child in Missouri, Kimora was still a young girl when her parents separated, leaving her mother, Joanne Perkins, to raise her alone. 'A lot of my ideals come from my mum,' she says, 'and seeing what she sacrificed for me and how hard she worked definitely shaped me.'

Did her mother constantly tell her she was fabulous? 'Well, I think people used different words for it back then!' Kimora laughs. 'But she was definitely the prototype of strong womanhood for me and it's where I get a lot of my determination from.'

Her exotic ancestry (Kimora is of Korean, Japanese and African-American descent) meant that growing up in the Midwest in the mid-Seventies and Eighties presented its own particular set of problems. 'I was bullied and picked on because I was so different to everyone else,' she says, 'and I definitely didn't believe or even know I was fabulous back then. But those hard times made me everything I am today. It's all water under the bridge now, but being bullied and going through adversity definitely made me stronger.'

To improve Kimora's confidence, her mother enrolled her in a modelling class when she was ten years old and after embarking on her modelling career at the age of 13, Kimora was chosen by Karl Lagerfeld to model for Chanel, where she went on to walk the runways of Paris, Milan and New York.

'That was a real turning point for me,' admits Kimora, 'because everything that people considered weird about me before, well, suddenly Karl Lagerfeld said it was OK. He's one of the biggest names in fashion, so all of a sudden it gave me a validity and introduced me to a whole other world.'

By the time she had turned 17, Kimora had already caught the eye of Russell Simmons, co-founder of the Def Jam label as well as creator of the Phat Farm clothing line (Kimora is former creative director and co-founder of its subsidiary, Baby Phat). She married him at 23 and though the couple separated in 2006, Simmons occasionally pops up in Kimora's various TV shows with their two daughters Ming, now 13, and Aoki, ten.

Kimora subsequently went on to marry actor Djimon Hounsou (best known for his roles in Blood Diamond and Amistad) and although they have a three-year-old son Kenzo, the couple separated at the end of last year. She deftly sidesteps the reasons as to why her five-year union with Hounsou didn't last, but says: 'Relationships do change throughout the course of your life and I always think in terms of relationships changing and evolving rather than starting and stopping.

'Kids never go away from your life and if you've been married, that person probably never goes away either. You never get rid of anyone and,' she laughs, 'they never really get rid of you!'

Good terms: Despite splitting in 2006, Kimora maintains a good relationship with her first husband Russell who she has two children with

Although she says she is on friendly terms with her ex-husbands, she admits: 'Gosh, it's not always so easy, but I try to do everything from the viewpoint of what's best for my kids. I have three kids and two great dads and it's not always easy, but you have to try to be a little selfless and we manage just fine.'

Though Kimora was recently linked with heavyweight boxer Malik 'King' Scott, she says now: 'I'm not with anyone at the moment – it's just my kids and their two dads I guess' and one wonders whether all that rampant fabulosity might not be a touch intimidating for some men.

'Well, I think they are sometimes [intimidated],' she admits, 'but men are intimidated by a lot of things, you know, such as jobs and bit of determination. They have a lot of insecurities about who we are, what we have, what we look like, what we've accomplished and what we're capable of because we're fabulous and capable of doing so much and juggling so much every day.

'People might be mad I'm saying this, but [men] do have a lot of hang-ups. But that shouldn't deter you ladies from being great! You don't have to dumb down – you just have to find a clever, good, secure man. I've found a couple – I've been lucky – but it's probably hard for everybody to find that true love of a good man.'

Having crammed so much in during her formative years, does she ever feel that she grew up a touch too quickly? 'Oh my gosh, I did,' she exclaims. 'I was modelling at ten, I married very young and I've done everything pretty early. I always joke that I've had several midlife crises already! I've definitely made mistakes along the way,' she admits,  'but I've got a good head on my shoulders and,' she adds in a rare moment of understated fabulosity, 'things have turned out pretty well so far.'

* Kimora: House Of Fab, Thursdays at 9pm, on Style (Sky Channel 253 /Virgin 285). JustFab, the online fashion styling service and lifestyle fashion brand is at www.JustFab.co.uk

Growing up fast: Kimora was modelling for Chanel from the age of 13

Comments (13)

Share what you think

• Newest
• Oldest
• Best rated
• Worst rated

 View all

The comments below have been moderated in advance.

 View all

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

We are no longer accepting comments on this article.

Who is this week's top commenter? Find out now