Ming Lee Simmons hasn’t had the same kind of media attention lately as her younger sister Aoki Lee Simmons.
Page Six recently reported that Aoki was photographed in St. Barts kissing restaurateur Vittorio Assaf, who’s 44 years older than her.
But Ming has been keeping her personal life out of the public eye.
She’s been more focused on her career.
Ming Lee Simmons Follows in Mother’s, Kimora Lee Simmons, Footsteps
She is following in the footsteps of her mother, Kimora Lee Simmons, who started out as a model and later went on to own and run her company Baby Phat.
The Observer described Ming as a model, businesswoman and content creator.
She has more than 1.5 million followers on social media.
Ming currently works with her mother at Baby Phat, the lifestyle brand that was founded in 1999.
According to the Observer, the company shut down after Kimora left it on September 1, 2010.
At the time, Kimora decided not to renew her contract with the parent company that owned Baby Phat, the Kellwood Company.
Russell Simmons, Kimora’s ex-husband and Ming Lee’s dad, had previously sold the company to The Kellwood Company for $140 million in 2004.
After Kimora left in 2010, the Kellywood Company sold the company to Sun Capital Partners.
They went on to sell it to an undisclosed buyer.
And then on International Women’s Day in 2019, Kimora announced that she had acquired the company once again, but wouldn’t reveal who she had purchased the company from.
Ming Lee Said “I Have a New Collection Dropping Soon With My Mom …’
Both Ming and Aoki were reportedly instrumental in the company’s relaunch.
In an interview with Refinery 29 last September, Ming explained that she had a new line launching with Baby Phat soon.
In the interview, she said,
“I have a new collection dropping soon with my mom that is fun and flirty. It’s made to make you comfortable and express yourself.”
Ming told Entertainment Tonight that she studied fashion in school, and she really loved working with her mom, so she was going to start there.
In her 2024 interview with the Observer, she said that she was basically a creative director at the company.
And what was cool about Baby Phat was that girls her age, like Ice Spice, were so into it, and her mom’s friends were also all about the comeback.
Ming studied fashion at New York University where she did an individualized study program that focused on fashion business and consumer behavior.
She described her time there as amazing, but she told Entertainment Tonight that because it was COVID, everything got shut down and everything moved online.
So her whole generation had a really hard time.
Ming Lee Simmons’ Modeling Career
Like her mother and sister, Ming has also worked as a model.
As well as modeling for her Kimora’s clothing collections, she’s also been a part of Kim Kardashian’s campaigns for SKIMS.
And for Kim’s sister, Khloe Kardashian’s Good American brand campaign too.
While speaking to W magazine, Ming said that she grew up on the runway, walking with her mom and sister at the end of every Baby Phat show during fashion week in New York.
She added that she’d been in ads with both Kimora and Aoki since she was 2 years old.
But it was only recently that she’d realized how uncommon that was, and she shared that she was deeply appreciative of those experiences.
The interviewer for the Observer revealed that Ming’s photoshoot was over sooner than expected on the day of the interview,
Because she was so good at her job.
They wrote that modeling seemed to be effortless for her.
Her sister’s modeling career has been more runway show oriented, she’s walked for designer brands like Tommy Hilfiger, Dolce & Gabbana and Lacoste.
But Ming reportedly told the interviewer that she preferred doing photoshoots, and she wasn’t sure if runway modeling was for her.
Kimora Lee Simmons’ Daughters, Ming Lee and Aoki Lee, Have Different Career Paths
Ming also opened up about how she and Aoki wanted different things in life.
She explained that she loved her sister so much and she loved working with her on Baby Phat.
However, outside that, they were both creating their own image separately from one another, and trying to not be paired together as much as when they were younger.
They wanted separate careers, but she added that they would always be together, she was like her other half.
Ming has been pretty vocal about her appreciation for her family.
Aside from Aoki, she also has three younger siblings from Kimora who she’s reportedly very close to.
According to Refinery 29, Ming considers her mom as her best friend.
In her interview with Hypebae in 2023, she said that she really kept her grounded.
She’d done an amazing job of supporting her and her siblings while also doing her best to make them aware of their privilege.
Ming also told W magazine that at some point in the future, she wanted to be where her mother was at in her life.
Russell Simmons Cryptic Message Allegedly Meant for His Ex Wife, Kimora Lee Simmons
She hasn’t talked about her relationship with her father Russell Simmons in the same way though.
Last year she did share a social media post which US weekly described as a snub to him.
On Father’s Day in 2023, Ming uploaded a picture of herself with her mom, and praised HER instead of her dad.
Russell then took to his Instagram and shared a mysterious message which was allegedly meant for his ex wife-
“Stop telling fathers they should have fought harder to see their children and start asking mothers why he had to fight at all.”
Aoki responded to it the next day by sharing a video about her father in which she criticized him and his past actions.
The Simmons’ Public Family Feud
She claimed that he had bullied Ming, and that he once even sent a man to her apartment to scare her.
US weekly also revealed that Kimora joined in the public feud on social media when she shared an Instagram story telling Russell to leave her kids alone.
She said that his threats, lies, intimidation maneuvers and tactics were sad.
Russell eventually ended up posting an apology message to Ming and Aoki.
He wrote that he was DEEPLY sorry for being frustrated and yelling, but that there were no conditions, he loved them more than he loved himself.
Ming Lee Determined to Carve Out Her Own Path
According to Tuko, Ming isn’t seeing anyone at the moment.
But Amomama revealed that she went Instagram official with her boyfriend Taimaru when she was 18 years old. They reportedly went to her prom together.
Since then, she’s been linked to Swae Lee, but neither of them confirmed that they were ever together.
Ming has talked openly about how she would like to stay in the industry that she’s in now.
She told Entertainment Tonight that in the future, she hoped she’d be doing something with her own fashion brand.
Because fashion was what made her really happy.
She also shared that she knew her last name had a lot of influence in the industry, but she wanted to carve out her own path.
While speaking to Hypebae, she said that she understood that she needed to work hard and prove herself to be able to stand on her own.
And as for what she’s doing outside of her work as a model and fashion designer, she also spoke with Refinery 29 about what other plans she has.
While it doesn’t seem like she’s planning to date a much older man like her sister Aoki any time soon, she did talk about wanting to travel like Aoki and her much older boyfriend did recently.
She said, “I’m still trying to find my footing, but I want to travel and see the world. I love fashion, and when I travel, I get inspiration.”
It’s definitely obvious that Ming is one of the quieter members of her family.
Over the last year, the world has watched as Russell, Kimora, and Aoki have made their family issues public for everyone to see.
And although Ming did post a Father’s Day post for her mom, not for her dad, she didn’t say anything else about her issues with Russell beyond that.
Meanwhile, Aoki went live on Instagram to discuss just how bad things had gotten with him.
Then Russell made his own statement back.
Russell Simmons’ Lawsuits
But things got even worse when he got sued twice at the beginning of 2024, just days apart.
First, he got sued by an unnamed former Def Jams Recording executive, who claimed that he SA’d her.
Then two days later, Drew Dixon, who is believed to be a second former Def Jam Recordings executive, sued Russell for defamation after she accused him of SA and battery and he claimed that she was making the claims for her own gain.
No one in Russell’s family, including Ming and Aoki, have spoken out about the claims against their father.
However, Russell did, in an interview on “In Depth with Graham Bassinger,” saying:
“I’ve never been violent to anybody. Of course I’ve been insensitive, but certainly never been forceful in any of my relationships, all of which I’ve had have been consensual.”
