Photo: Getty Images
Russell Simmons faced a series of scathing accusations about his parenting following Father's Day weekend.
The allegations flooded in on Monday (June 19) after Simmons shared an Instagram story seemingly attacking his ex-wife and mother of his children, Kimora Lee Simmons, per People.
"Stop telling fathers they should have fought harder to see their children & start asking mothers why he had to fight at all," the story read.
Kimora Lee Simmons, who shares daughters Ming Lee and Aoki Lee with Russell Simmons, clapped back at the post in a series of Instagram stories.
"I'm so sorry to have to do this," she wrote. "But this man has been threatening my kids' lives. I'm hearing so much more now. We won't be bullied threatened or afraid."
"Leave my kids alone," she continued. "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."
The model went on to accuse Russell of being "abusive" to women.
"The same abusive ish," she added. "This is how you manouver [sic] with the women all around you. Your threats and lies and intimidation manouvers [sic] and tactics are sad. Stop it please. Your own flesh and blood? Enough is enough."
Aoki, 20, echoed her mother's sentiment, posting a video of what appeared to be Russell yelling at her on FaceTime.
"This is not someone who will accept help," she captioned the video on Instagram. "This is just one screen recording sorry I don’t always remember to press 'record' when he calls my friends, my boyfriend, anyone, to get a chance to threaten and curse and go crazy."
The 20-year-old also shared text messages between her and her father, claiming that he had "harassed" her boyfriend and friends when she "[took] some space" away from him. Another text written by Aoki alleged that she was the target of her father's "anger and rage."
"Everytime I spoke to you you would yell and scream about a legal situation that I can't even respond to because I AM NOT INVOLVED, I am your child, not your lawyer your ex wife any of it. I can do nothing. You yell at me like it's my fault," she wrote in the text shared on her Instagram story. "You were putting so much anger and rage on me every phone call," she continued. "Cursing screaming and god knows what else. I'm sorry but I cannot be the target of that."
"It got to the point I could not hear your voice without having an anxiety attack," she added.
Aoki then got into the possibility of mental illness.
"Some of us do think he's mentally ill or experiencing something like dementia," she wrote. "He really acts like he hates and does not know his children frequently."
The daughter said Russell used to be "the best dad ever" and it's been "terrifying" to watch him change.
Later on Monday, Simmons made an Instagram post addressing the apparent feud and apologizing to his children.
“God is testing you a little bit, it’s ok, be strong. . . they are called growing pains,” he wrote alongside a photo of Ming and Aoki. “As you know, we grow through adversity and struggle . . . you read my books and heard me preach your whole childhood . . . reach back to old lessons and remember to remember ‘smile and breathe’ [heart emoji] ‘smile and breathe.'”
DEEPLY sorry for being frustrated and yelling . . . but know this . . . there are no conditions . . . for sure i love you guys more than i love myself," Russell concluded his post.
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