Kimora Lee insists her daughter is a beauty with brains as the 20-year-old girl completes her study at the Ivy League university while successfully launching her career as a model.
- May 30, 2023
AceShowbiz - Kimora Lee Simmons feels "so so soo proud" of her daughter Aoki graduating from Harvard. The ex Chanel muse applauded her 20-year-old daughter for walking in her cap and gown to get her diploma from the Ivy League university and labelled her a "brainy beauty" as she did it alongside her blossoming modelling career.
"My baby girl is a HARVARD GRADUATE!!! AND with a double major! AND one of the youngest in recent history to do so at only 20 years young," the 4x-year-old fashion designer wrote on Instagram.
"This is CRAZYY! IM SO SO SOO PROUD! AND all the while carrying a full-time job modeling! But YOU DID IT! WE DID IT! Mama loves you soooo much my brainy beauty! These are hard-fought tears anyone who knows us will know! [crying face emoji, red heart emoji, red heart emoji]."
Kimora - who also has daughter Ming, 23, with her Def Jam founder ex Russell Simmons, 65 - clapped back at "absolutely absurd" criticisms of her girl trying to make it fashion while studying.
She told People magazine, "It's absolutely absurd. We wish Aoki the best and she knows that. So whether it's in front of the camera or behind the scenes … It doesn't make you any more or less of a business person or any more or less of a student or a student of the world or any more or less than a model. It's important to explore all your passions."
The Baby Phat founder - who is now married to Tim Leissner, 51 - admitted she loves Aoki is "trying to follow in her footsteps" after she was scouted to be a muse of the late Karl Lagerfeld when she was 13 in the 80s.
Kimora said, "I love it that she's trying to follow in my footsteps. But also I think it's a pain because if I had had some of what they have, maybe I wouldn't have been a model. But I think it's just looking at different sides of a coin ... If "I've done it and I know it's tough and I know it's a little janky. Why would you want to do it? But we love an educated clumsy queen. She is an educated, clumsy queen."
