Lil' Kim made a rare red carpet appearance with her 12-year-old daughter Royal Reign at a fashion show in New York City on Thursday, stepping out together for the Amazon Back-to-School Kids Fashion Show presented by Rookie at Iron 23 in the Flatiron District.
Mother and daughter struck a charming pose for photographers, with Royal placing her left hand together with Kim's right to form a heart shape.
Kim, 52, shares Royal with her ex and fellow rapper Mr Papers, with whom she was involved from 2012 to 2014 and again from 2020 to 2021. Royal has in recent years followed her parents into the public eye, walking the children's Rookie USA show at New York Fashion Week in 2023.
Kim's openness about plastic surgery
Kim has been frank in the past about undergoing plastic surgery and looked strikingly different at the event compared to her appearance during the 1990s. In 2005, she explained to radio host Angie Martinez that she had one nose job to correct damage caused by abuse she suffered in a relationship.
She said that jokes and speculation about her surgeries do not bother her because, in her words, she is beautiful and loves herself. She did acknowledge, however, that there are certain things she felt she was obsessive about and that she thinks she will always have time to fix.
Kim maintained that people think she pursued surgery due to low self-esteem, but said that was not the case. She described her motivation as being a little too vain at the time, and called herself a perfectionist, adding that the experience taught her to pull back from certain things.
A turbulent past
Although Kim did not identify the abusive ex in that 2005 interview, she later disclosed that her 1990s romance with The Notorious B.I.G. was very violent. In 1999, two years after Biggie was murdered, Kim revealed she had become pregnant during their relationship and had an abortion, telling The Source that bringing a child into that relationship was something that could not take place.
It was Biggie who had discovered Kim in the 1990s, bringing her into his group Junior M.A.F.I.A., which also included Lil' Cease.
Royal's future
Kim has kept her daughter's life largely out of the public eye, but in a 2021 interview called Royal her bestie and described her as awesome. She said she would support Royal if she wanted to pursue a music career, though she told Entertainment Tonight she might suggest a different route and would guide her daughter to avoid the mistakes she made.
