Presley Gerber, the 27-year-old model and son of supermodel Cindy Crawford and businessman Rande Gerber, died Sunday at a rehabilitation facility after what his family described as a long battle with drug addiction.
Los Angeles County Medical Examiner records confirmed Gerber died on September 20 at a rehab facility, USA Today reported. An autopsy is pending, and the cause and manner of death have not been released. Crawford's publicist confirmed the death and said the family is requesting privacy.
The New York Post reported that Gerber died of a drug overdose at the facility. His death came after years of public struggles with addiction and mental health, struggles he had spoken about openly, sometimes in raw and unsettling detail.
Born in Beverly Hills in 1999, Presley Gerber grew up in one of Hollywood's most visible families. His mother, Cindy Crawford, was among the most famous supermodels in the world. His father, Rande Gerber, co-founded the tequila brand Casamigos. His younger sister, Kaia Gerber, became a model and actress in her own right.
Presley signed with IMG Models at 15 and made his runway debut for Moschino in Los Angeles at 17. He walked for Dolce & Gabbana and appeared in international campaigns for Calvin Klein and Celine. By the standards of the fashion world, he had arrived before he could legally vote.
But the trajectory changed quickly. In December 2018, Gerber was arrested and charged with a DUI in Beverly Hills. He later pleaded no contest and was sentenced to three years of probation, a DUI program, and two days of community service. His career slowed, and public scrutiny intensified.
In 2020, he unveiled a face tattoo reading "MISUNDERSTOOD", a move that drew widespread backlash. In an Instagram video at the time, as Fox News reported, Gerber pushed back against critics:
"If I thought this was going to ruin my face or I didn't want this, I wouldn't have done it. I think that's a pretty obvious thing. It says misunderstood, because that's how I felt my entire life."
He reportedly removed the tattoo about a year later.
Whatever else the tattoo episode revealed, Gerber did not retreat from public life entirely. Instead, he began talking, sometimes with striking candor, about his mental health.
In a February 2023 appearance on the Studio 22 podcast, he described mental health as a constant effort, calling it a round-the-clock commitment. He said he hoped his openness could help others:
"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 launched a social media video series called "Mental Health Mondays," and in another podcast segment spoke about wanting to help people without judgment:
"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."
The struggle Gerber described was not abstract. Celebrity deaths linked to substance abuse and prescription drug dependency have become a grim pattern in recent years, and the broader crisis of addiction, including the role of powerful prescription medications, continues to claim lives across every demographic. Gerber's case underscored that wealth, fame, and access to treatment are no guarantee of survival. The death of actress Hayden Panettiere earlier drew similar attention to how addiction and troubled relationships can spiral even for people surrounded by resources.
By late 2025, Gerber's public disclosures had grown more alarming. In a since-deleted video posted in December of that year, he discussed the medications he was taking, Buprenorphine, Xanax, and valium, and described the fear that came with dependence on them.
"The doctors say a lot of different things, so it's kind of scary, but hopefully between my research and their research... and God, we can figure this out."
He was blunt about the danger of withdrawal:
"The things that scare me are the things you need to take... if you don't take them, something not good happens. And there's a spectrum there on how intense the withdrawal from certain medications is."
Those are not the words of someone speaking in generalities. They are the words of a young man describing, in real time, the grip that prescription drugs had on his daily life. The intersection of addiction, prescription medication, and the search for treatment has become a recurring theme in high-profile deaths. Investigations into how drugs reach people in crisis have raised hard questions about accountability in those supply chains.
On March 26, Gerber posted on Instagram that he had undergone an ibogaine "flood dose", a reference to a controversial psychedelic treatment sometimes used to address opioid addiction. He described the experience as frightening but said he had confronted what he had been running from and was finding his way back to himself.
Less than six months later, he was dead at a rehab facility.
Presley's younger sister, Kaia Gerber, a model and actress, spoke publicly about her brother's struggles in a Vogue cover story published in August, just weeks before his death. She described what she called his "decade-long struggle with drug addiction" and the toll it took on the entire family.
"When something like that happens in a family, it kind of levels everyone."
She also described how her brother's needs reshaped her own sense of self, pushing her to suppress her own difficulties:
"I think that's also why I started to self-identify as the easy one and never wanted to ask for help. Because it felt like too much to have two children who were needing."
And she acknowledged the limits of trying to shield a family crisis from public view. The Gerber family's prominence made privacy nearly impossible, and the pattern of public struggle, the DUI, the tattoo, the social media confessions, had played out in tabloids and entertainment coverage for years. Families in similar situations, like those who have lost loved ones to addiction, often find themselves fighting for answers long after the cameras move on.
"There's only so much you can hide from the world. And trying to put a lid on something just makes the person feel like you're ashamed of them."
Crawford's publicist confirmed the death to USA Today and issued a brief statement:
"The family is asking for privacy during this very difficult and painful time."
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner has not released a cause or manner of death. An autopsy is pending completion. The specific location of the rehab facility has not been disclosed.
TMZ first reported Gerber's death. The circumstances surrounding how a 27-year-old died inside a facility specifically designed to help him recover remain unanswered. Those questions, about what happened, what was administered, and what safeguards were in place, deserve answers. The broader problem of young people struggling with addiction and health crises while cycling through treatment programs is not unique to famous families, but fame does make the failures harder to ignore.
For anyone struggling with substance abuse, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration operates a free, confidential helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357), available around the clock in English and Spanish.
Presley Gerber asked for help publicly, sought treatment repeatedly, and died inside a place built to save him. That is not a story about celebrity. That is a story about a system that still fails the people it promises to catch.
