Long before Kimora Lee built a fashion empire, raised five children and became one of the most recognizable figures in American style and entertainment, she was a teenage model navigating an adult world that moved very quickly around her.

Now, decades later, Lee is revisiting one of the most complicated chapters of those early years — including the moment when her friend Tyra Banks apparently tried to keep her away from the man Lee would eventually marry, Russell Simmons.

At the time, Lee did not necessarily appreciate the interference.

Looking back, however, she believes Banks may have been trying to protect her.

The story is among the personal memories Lee shares in her Lifetime documentary, Kimora Lee: On Her Own, which premiered Sept. 20. The project examines her career, family and relationships while giving Lee an opportunity to reconsider experiences she says she understood very differently when she was younger.

A Teenage Model Meets Russell Simmons

Lee was still a teenager when she encountered Simmons in the mid-1990s.

Her modeling career had already taken her to Paris, where she had become associated with Chanel, and she was beginning to establish herself in New York’s fashion world.

Simmons, meanwhile, was already a powerful figure in music and fashion.

According to Lee’s recollection, he became an unmistakable presence at the shows where she walked. He would position himself near the runway and make his enthusiasm obvious, loudly applauding and cheering.

To the teenage Lee, his attention initially seemed strange rather than romantic.

She recalled wondering who the man creating such a commotion at the end of the runway was. He would also appear backstage, which stood out to her because models were changing clothes in those areas.

The age difference would later become especially significant in the way Lee remembered that period. She said she was 16 when she met Simmons and that he was 18 years older than she was.

Soon, Simmons’ interest became harder to miss.

Large flower arrangements began arriving for Lee.

And Tyra Banks, who had become Lee’s friend during their modeling years, apparently noticed what was happening.

Tyra Banks Steps In

Banks did more than simply give her friend advice.

Lee remembers one particular weekend when Banks kept her at her apartment, making it difficult for Lee to return home and hear the messages waiting for her.

The detail sounds almost quaint decades later, but it mattered in an era before smartphones.

There was no instant text message waiting in someone’s pocket. If Lee wanted to find out who had called her, she needed to return home and check her voicemail.

Banks apparently understood that.

Lee recalls spending the weekend at Banks’ apartment as they often did, while Banks effectively prevented her from getting back to the messages Simmons was leaving.

At the time, Lee found the situation irritating.

She believed Banks might simply be jealous or interfering unnecessarily.

“I felt a little bit like she was hating,” Lee recalled, explaining that Banks was getting in her way.

With decades of distance, however, Lee now interprets her friend’s behavior differently.

Banks, she believes, was trying to look after her.

Lee has also wondered whether Simmons may previously have pursued Banks or other young women in similar ways. She described herself at the time as having the kind of confidence many young people have when they believe their experience will somehow be different from everyone else’s.

Whatever Banks knew or suspected, her intervention did not stop the relationship.

Simmons continued calling.

And Lee ultimately chose to pursue the relationship.

The Warning Did Not Change Her Path

Lee and Simmons eventually married in 1998.

By then, the teenage romance Banks had apparently tried to interrupt had become a major relationship in Lee’s life.

In an interesting twist, Banks was not pushed out of the picture because of her earlier objections. She served as a bridesmaid at Lee’s wedding.

Lee and Simmons later welcomed two daughters, Ming Lee and Aoki Lee Simmons. Banks became Aoki’s godmother.

For years, their lives remained interconnected through friendship, family and the fashion industry.

But those relationships would change.

Lee and Simmons separated in 2006, after eight years of marriage, and their divorce was finalized in 2009.

Lee has described their relationship as deeply difficult. She has alleged that Simmons was verbally abusive and said it took her years to recognize certain experiences as abuse.

“I didn’t even realize it was abusive,” Lee said of gradually reconsidering the relationship later in life.

She explained that behaviors involving emotional or financial control could seem normalized during the period in which she was living through them.

Simmons did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding Lee’s latest claims.

In recent years, he has also faced sexual assault allegations from multiple women. Simmons has previously strongly denied those accusations and maintained that his relationships were consensual.

Lee has said she did not know about those allegations while she was with him and learned about them only after their relationship had ended.

A Friendship That Also Changed

Lee’s realization about Banks comes with another complicated layer: the two women are no longer close.

Despite the friendship that once saw them spending nights at each other’s homes, working in the same industry and sharing a connection through Lee’s family, Lee has said that she and Banks have not spoken in years.

That distance makes the memory of Banks’ attempt to intervene more striking.

What Lee once interpreted as a girlfriend being annoying, jealous or overly involved now appears to her as an act of concern.

The weekend Banks kept her away from her voicemail did not ultimately prevent Lee from seeing Simmons. It did not stop the marriage, the family they created together or the difficult experiences Lee says followed.

But it remained in her memory.

And decades later, its meaning changed.

Looking Back With Different Eyes

Lee’s reflections come as she appears increasingly willing to examine her past without protecting the relationships or reputations connected to it.

She and Simmons have also gone through a legal dispute involving shared stocks, which Lee says has now been resolved. Asked whether speaking publicly in the documentary might create additional tension with her former husband, Lee made clear that she is no longer particularly concerned about his reaction.

That attitude appears to reflect the larger theme running through her recollections.

At 16, Lee saw a successful older man enthusiastically pursuing her.

She saw a friend blocking her from checking her voicemail and wondered why that friend would interfere.

Years later, after marriage, motherhood, divorce and numerous personal and professional chapters, Lee sees the same scene through entirely different eyes.

Banks could not determine what Lee would choose.

But Lee now believes her friend was attempting to protect her before she fully understood what she might be walking into.

For Lee, hindsight did not change what happened.

It changed what she believes the warning meant.