Kimora Lee Simmons
| Kimora Lee Leissner | |
|---|---|
Leissner at the Push premiere in January 2009
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| Born |
Kimora Lee Perkins May 4, 1975 St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. |
| Years active | 1992–present |
| Spouse(s) |
Russell Simmons (m. 1998–2009) Tim Leissner (m. 2013) |
| Partner(s) | Djimon Hounsou (2007–2012) |
| Children | 4 |
| Website | www |
| Modeling information | |
| Height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) |
| Hair color | Dark Brown |
| Eye color | Brown |
Kimora Lee Leissner (née Perkins; born May 4, 1975) is an American fashion model and fashion designer. She took over Baby Phat after Russell Simmons and was CEO/Creative Director through 2010.
Kimora Lee Perkins was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Her Japanese mother, Joanne Perkins, was adopted by an American serviceman during the Korean War and raised in the USA. She later worked as an administrator for Social Security. Kimora's father, Vernon Whitlock Jr., is African American, and worked as a Federal Marshal, an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigator, a bail bondsman, and later became a barber in St. Louis. He was sentenced to prison when Kimora was in grade school for distribution of narcotics. It was substantiated in the U.S. District Court (Honorable Clyde Cahill) that government agents attempted to recruit Whitlock as an informant in exchange for probation, but he vehemently refused. Consequently, he was refused probation and was taken off his $500,000 bond and was given the 24-year sentence; he was released after five years. Her parents split up and she was raised by her mother.
Growing up in the northern St. Louis suburb of Florissant, Missouri, Kimora was the target of schoolyard bullying and teasing, because of her height (she was 5 feet 10 inches (1.78 m) tall by the time she was 10 years old) and mixed ancestry. To give her confidence because of her height, Simmons's mother enrolled her in a modeling class when she was eleven years old. Two years later she was discovered by Marie-Christine Kollock (a representative for seminal Paris Agency Glamour) at a Model Search in Kansas City (organized by Kay Mitchell) and sent to Paris. Simmons is a graduate of Lutheran North High School in St. Louis, Missouri.
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