Supermodel Cindy Crawford has broken her silence on the death of her son Presley Gerber, who died on Sept. 20 at the age of 27.
Crawford took to Instagram on Sunday to share a tribute for her son, writing, “We are beyond heartbroken to lose our beloved son and brother. We feel so blessed to have had Presley in our lives for 27 years.”
“He is a sweet, beautiful soul who loved and is loved, now and forever. We are so proud of how he showed up in the world, with kindness and vulnerability,” the 60-year-old model continued.
“We are grateful for the outpouring of love and support from so many who know and love our family and even strangers who feel our pain. Til we meet again our sweet boy. We love you forever, Mom, Dad and Kaia.”
Crawford shared a black-and-white photo of her late son and thanked artist Sebastian Faena for “capturing this beautiful image.”
Gerber’s sister Kaia also took to Instagram on Sunday to share a tribute to her brother, writing, “Prez, I don’t have the words, and maybe the tiny mercy is that we didn’t need them all along.”
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“Words fail and words subtract and words summarize and words always lack truth. And how naive of me to believe that language could transcend grief,” she continued. “I’ve read all of the books and I have none of the answers. My articulation is no match against this, the magnitude of losing you. I am, quite literally, down on my f—ing knees.”
“You know how much I loved being your sister. It has always been, and will forever be, my favorite thing about myself. I came into this world with a white-knuckle grip around you,” Kaia wrote. “I had more love for you than I knew what to do with. And now that it has nowhere obvious to go, I’m certain it’s going to swallow me whole.”
Kaia said that her brother “always believed in people.”
“You met cruelty not with anger, but with confusions. And curiosity. You believed people were inherently good because, Presley, you are inherently good. And somehow, through all of it, I got to be your sister, your lucky eternal witness, watching you do the most hard-core, heavy metal thing anyone can do: you stayed soft,” she added.
She called her late brother her “ultimate teacher,” adding, “Now I’m left wondering what I could possibly be taught in your absence.”
“I keep thinking about how when we were little, I got scared before getting my ears pieced, so you went first. You always went first. But when I held the earring they took from your body, all I could think was: that belongs to you. And I really f—ing wish you hadn’t gone first this time,” Kaia wrote.
“My best buddy, my great protector, the hardest I’ve ever laughed and the one true love of my life — you lit all my candles and took all of my monsters away. And I love you,” Kaia later added in her post.
Gerber died at a “rehab facility,” according to online records from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner, viewed by Global News.
His cause and manner of death will be determined by the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner.
The investigation into Gerber’s death remains ongoing.
“The family is asking for privacy during this very difficult and painful time,” the representative for Gerber’s mother Crawford, father Rande Gerber and sister Kaia Gerber told People at the time.
Gerber had been vocal about his struggles with mental health and started a series on Instagram called “Mental Health Mondays,” where he sparked conversations “about the stuff most people hide.”
In November 2025, Gerber took to Instagram, writing, “It’s been a minute since I’ve posted — I had to step back and take care of my own mental health for a bit. But I’m coming back soon — stronger, clearer, more intentional than ever.”
“When I started Mental Health Mondays, the goal was to spark real conversations about the stuff most people hide. It’s been incredible seeing how far that message has spread and how many people it’s helped,” he wrote. “I’m proud that something I created has inspired others and started a bigger movement around openness and healing.”
Gerber spoke about his mental health and struggles with substance abuse during a February 2023 appearance on the Studio 22 podcast.
“Having struggled with mental health, depression and some other things that come along with that, I think that whether I help one person or a hundred people get out of that place that I was in at one point in my life, that’s all I need to do,” he said.
“It is such a big part of my life. It’s a 24/7 job, and there’s so much to it,” Gerber said of his mental health. “That’s really what I want to do: help people, whether you’re depressed, you’re struggling with something that is having a negative effect on your body. I mean it could be anything, and there’s no judgment.”
“I’ve seen a lot of stuff and I’ve learned a lot of things. What I hope I can do is have made the mistakes for some other people, so they don’t have to make the same mistakes that I made,” he added.
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