What's going on with Russell Simmons?

Russell Simmons, the entrepreneur and co-founder of Def Jam Recordings, is embroiled in yet another public controversy. Simmons has previously been accused of sexual assault and harassment by a number of women (some of whom were underage at the time of the alleged assaults). These accusations were widely reported, most notably in the 2020 documentary On The Record. Now, Simmons is being accused of mistreatment by his own family members, including ex-wife Kimora Lee Simmons and daughter Aoki Lee Simmons.

The public feuding began when the former couple’s eldest child, Ming Lee Simmons, posted a photo with her mother to her Instagram story captioned “Happy Father’s Day” (per Page Six). Seemingly in response, Russell posted on his own IG Story, “Stop telling fathers they should have fought harder to see their children & start asking mothers why he had to fight at all.” Additionally, he posted, “The father you have is the perfect father for the evolution of your soul and the lessons that you needed to learn in this lifetime.”

Following this, both Aoki and Kimora posted scathing accusations on their own social media. Kimora (who first met Russell when she was a 17-year-old model and Russell was 35) wrote that he “has been threatening my kids’ lives,” calling his behavior “abusive” (via People). “This is how you manouver [sic] with the world and 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.”

Meanwhile, Aoki shared a muted clip of a video call in which Russell appeared to be yelling at her, as well as screenshots of messages between herself and her father. In her captions, Aoki claimed not to have received financial support from her father in years, and that he’d harassed her boyfriend and friends (“literally college students. Children”) trying to get in touch with her. In the messages, she stated that she had stopped talking to her father because his raging conversations gave her “panic attacks” (via TMZ).

In a since-deleted post, Aoki claimed that Russell has not been well for years, and that he “threatened and bullied” her sister and grandma, and sent “a man to my sisters apartment at 2am to scare her.”

In another post, she wrote, “Some of us do think he’s mentally ill or experiencing something like dementia. He really acts like he hates and does not know his children frequently.” She added, “Prior to his media issues he was really the best dad ever and a great co parent. He and my mom were best friends. We all defended him against anything, and then he suddenly turned on ANYONE who will let him lash out. It’s a really just terrifying change to watch.”

On Tuesday, Russell posted a picture of his daughters on his Instagram with a caption that suggested “God is testing you a little bit.” He wrote, “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.” Neither his ex-wife nor daughters have appeared to respond to this message publicly.