Kimora Lee Simmons recalls ‘crazy’ teenage phone bills

Kimora Lee Simmons has revealed the “crazy” phone bills she racked up as a teenage model.

The businesswoman and mum of five moved to Europe for modelling when she was 13 years old – and it meant she spent thousands of dollars phoning home every month.

“I was running up a phone bill,” Kimora, 50, told People Magazine. “My phone bill – this is crazy – my phone bill was like $5,000 a month because back then that was when it was real long-distance.”

Having left her hometown in Missouri before she began high school, Kimora missed her family dearly and suffered from extreme homesickness – and before the advent of the internet and online video chats, long-distance calls were exorbitantly priced.

“You didn’t have calling plans and the Wi-Fi. We didn’t have that. You had a collect call,” Kimora recalled.

“You could either pay for it yourself on your credit card or bill it to someone else. I remember being like, ‘Where’s my mom?'”

Kimora who modelled for Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld back then, added that Karl once pointed out that their work at that time would no longer be legal due to child-labour laws.

“As I got older, I realised I was the youngest one,” she explained. “Karl would even tell me things like, ‘What we did before is illegal now’ – labour laws and kids. So yeah, we were at it kind of early.”