Event Snaps

Relationship In Jeopardy For Kimora Lee Simmons And Djimon Hounsou

It’s looking like another one bites the dust for the model turned mogul and reality star.

Kimora Lee Simmons and Djimon Hounsou aren’t as committed to each other as they used to be.
A source close to the couple tells us the glamazon and her “Gladiator” beau have split after a “big fight over money.”
“Djimon walked out on Kimora,” says the source, who adds that the split may have been prompted by Simmons’ ex-husband, hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons ’ decision to stop funding the pair’s lifestyle.
St. Louis-born “Kimora lives as if she’s the Queen of England,” notes the source, although there’s at least one sign her life in the fab lane may be slowing to a crawl.
On Thursday, the Trulia Luxe Living blog said Simmons, 37, the creative director and president of shopping web site JustFab.com, was unloading her modest (by celeb standards) six-bedroom, eight-bath Beverly Hills country home at a loss.
Simmons reportedly paid $5.9 million for the home at the height of the market in 2007 and has now listed it for just $4.7 million.
On Monday, Simmons responded via Twitter to speculation the house sale was a sign of financial difficulty.
“Wow, I put 1 of several properties I own (+ DONT live in) on the market & now apparently my whole life is fallin apart?!” she tweeted. “Rumors, Rumors …”
Yet reps for both Simmons and Hounsou sidestepped discussing the state of their relationship.
Simmons’ spokeswoman said only that “Kimora has a beautiful family life.”
Hounsou’s rep emailed that he couldn’t “liase” with us until after deadline because he was taking a plane from L.A. to New York.
In response to our request for comment on the break-up, he wrote, “Djimon’s been working in Vancouver for the past few months.”
Russell Simmons did not respond to our attempts to contact him by deadline.
Simmons began dating the 48-year-old Hounsou, from Benin, Africa, in March 2007 after separating in 2006 from Simmons. The two were married for 10 years and have two daughters, Ming , 12, and Aoki , 9. They divorced in 2009.
In summer 2008, Simmons and Hounsou participated in a traditional Beninese commitment ceremony. In May 2009, their son Kenzo Lee Hounsou was born. He just celebrated his third birthday.
Over the Christmas and New Year holidays, another source who saw Hounsou and Simmons in St. Barth noticed tension between them. At a party that Kimora’s ex threw at the Eden Roc hotel there, “Kimora stuck Djimon with keeping track of the three kids while she socialized with her ex,” the source says, adding that “Kimora and Djimon were fighting on New Year’s Eve.”
“He is a calm, super-nice person and she’s such a diva,” says the source. “I couldn’t believe they got together in the first place.”