Today, Simmons heads a bustling, blended household of five children: daughters Ming Lee and Aoki Lee, and sons Kenzo Lee, Wolfe Lee, and Gary. Preserving cultural memory across multiple generations requires deliberate effort, especially in high-profile entertainment circles where identity often flattens into generic celebrity branding.
Simmons makes heritage education a tangible family reality. Her children frequently travel to East Asia on immersive cultural study trips rather than insulated resort vacations. During an extensive 2023 journey across Japan and South Korea, Simmons documented her children studying historical landmarks, local markets, and family ancestral traditions. Ming and Aoki Lee, both established fashion and media personalities in their own right, regularly speak about their mother's insistence on cultural literacy.
Cooking traditional Korean dishes remains a central fixture in the Simmons household. From homemade kimchi to celebratory bowls of seaweed soup (miyeok-guk), culinary traditions serve as an unbroken link connecting Joanne Perkins’ St. Louis kitchen to her grandchildren’s lives today. Simmons approaches her family not as a celebrity novelty, but as a deliberate model of multiracial cohesion grounded in ancestral respect.
