I know the recent allegations against P. Diddy are at the top of everyone’s mind, and deservedly so. One of the most notable figures in hip-hop being accused of rape and sexual assault by multiple women is a huge story.
But don’t let that hide the fact that fellow music mogul Russell Simmons was accused of rape and sexual assault by more than three times the women than Diddy was more than six years ago.
After years of silence (only hearing from him through statements), Simmons finally addressed those allegations during a lengthy interview on an episode of, In Depth with Graham Bensinger.
On Wednesday clips for the episode, which is set to air this weekend, showed Simmons discussing the multiple rape allegations, the Me Too Movement, and his tumultuous relationship with ex-wife Kimora Lee Simmons and their two children.
During the interview, Simmons was pretty open about his sexual history, acknowledging that he’s had more “foursomes than most men have had partners.” He later said, “I think that the culture and the climate was different, and the way people interacted was different. I think to judge 40 years ago as if it was today, we get in trouble.”
But when it came to the accusations, he denied all of them, saying, “I’ve never been violent to anybody,” and that he’s taken “nine lie detector tests” to prove his innocence in every allegation.
The music mogul claimed that the polygraph examiners asked him questions regarding each woman’s allegations. He says that the tests were “94% accurate.”
If you recall, the allegations made in 2017 were fueled by the Me Too Movement, which was born out of women being open about the sexual assault they’ve allegedly been subjected to. “It’s a great movement,” said Simmons. “It’s done a lot of great work for women. It sensitized men in ways they were not sensitized, and for that I’m grateful.”
Although this interview was solely with Simmons, Bensinger reached out to Simmons’ alleged victims, with four women saying that they stood by their original claims.
Despite the recent controversy, Simmons also opened up about his relationship with his ex-wife, Kimora Lee Simmons, who released a lengthy video on Instagram in June where she claimed that he had cut off his two daughters, Aoki Lee and Ming Lee.
He also denied those claims, telling Bensinger, “I speak to them behind her back almost every day. I still support them, but it’s tough. They started to receive a different narrative and it started to really be more difficult to manage my relationship with them.”
Aoki Lee, Simmons’ youngest daughter, explained their relationship differently in June when she said, “This is not someone who will accept help. 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.”
She also claimed that he had threatened her sister, grandmother, and herself.