Presley Gerber’s Secret Lifelong Struggle and Fears of Death

Earlier this year, Presley Gerber, the son of former 1990s supermodel Cindy Crawford, entered a controversial rehabilitation program hoping it would finally help him regain control of his life.

From a treatment retreat in Mexico, he shared a video describing his experience with ibogaine, a naturally occurring psychoactive substance that is sometimes used in efforts to address alcohol and substance abuse.

“I faced what I had been running from, and somewhere in all of it, I started finding my way back to myself,” he wrote on Instagram in March. “We shall see… Praying it’s the last time I have to come back.”

His family appeared encouraged by the progress. In supportive messages, relatives described him as a “warrior,” praised his “courage” in confronting difficult issues and expressed pride that he had continued fighting through a decades-long struggle with poor mental health.

In light of what followed, however, that hopeful message has taken on a devastating significance.

Presley, the 27-year-old son of Crawford, 60, and millionaire businessman Rande Gerber, 64, died Sunday at a rehabilitation facility in Los Angeles.

In a statement issued Monday, the Santa Monica Police Department said officers “responded to a report of a possible overdose” at approximately 9:35 a.m. on September 20. “At this time, there is no indication of foul play,” police said.

Crawford’s publicist confirmed the death in a statement, saying: “The family is asking for privacy during this very difficult and painful time.”

The loss will be profoundly painful for his family, though one person close to them said Presley’s death had been feared for some time and described it as “inevitable.”

“I truly didn’t think there was any way out for Prez,” the insider told the Daily Mail. “It’s so sad to say, but it felt inevitable.”

“It wasn’t that he didn’t try. He just couldn’t seem to handle the pressure of being born into a famous family. He always felt he was being judged by outsiders and had to live up to his parents’ successes.”

Presley’s experience was far removed from the familiar stereotype of a privileged “nepo baby”—the assumption that children of wealthy and famous parents can enter any industry through family connections, regardless of their own talent.

His younger sister, model and actress Kaia Gerber, 25, appears to have handled that legacy differently. She reportedly earns about $5 million a year and has become one of the world’s most successful models, while also securing prominent roles in the award-winning television series American Horror Story and Ryan Murphy’s adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’s novel The Shards.

For Presley, however, the family name became a heavy burden.

“When he was getting huge modeling gigs, he didn’t think it was because of him,” the family friend said.

“He thought it was because he was Cindy Crawford’s son. The stress became a huge obstacle.”

“He was brought up with great love and respect for others, but his biggest problem was that he never believed he was enough.”

Born in Brentwood, California, in 1999, Presley grew up in the Californian beach city of Malibu and went to school at Malibu High.

But his was no ordinary high school experience. Scouted at the age of 15 and signed to IMG Models, the same agency as his sister, soon he was juggling academic work with a burgeoning modeling career.

‘Within the first week of signing I’m in New York and people are taking pictures of me, like, shirt off,’ he recalled to the Studio 22 podcast in 2023. ‘My whole life changed within a month, and it was just a very profound experience because I had to grow up quickly.’

A year later, in 2016, he made his runway debut for Italian label Moschino and soon he was walking for brands including Burberry, Dolce & Gabbana, Bottega Veneta, Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren. His most recent gig was as the face of Celine’s Eau de Californie fragrance and last year he teamed up with his family for a campaign for Californian activewear label Vuori.

The transition from a kid with a relatively normal existence to an in-demand model was clearly jarring for Presley who would often reflect fondly on his life pre-fame, posting old home video footage and photos on Instagram alongside captions like ‘the good old days.’

Seemingly hand-in-hand with his newfound career came a deterioration in his mental state. He said himself that his ‘quality of life rapidly decreased’ when he went from a teenager with a sporty, structured existence – playing water polo or swimming for hours every day, pausing only to grab something to eat – to traveling the world for shoots and fashion shows and dabbling in medication for his mental health.

Reflecting on his rise to fame last year, he said: ‘For me it took ten years of looking back at my life being like “what changed?” People would always ask: “You were such a happy kid, what happened to you?” What happened was life happened and I wasn’t able to worry about one thing which was my next meal and then get back in the ocean. I had to start making money and get a job.’

These were comments made on one of his Mental Health Mondays videos, an Instagram initiative he launched in March 2023 to talk about his own experiences and to help others feel less alone. ‘I have struggled with mental health a lot of my adult life and starting at a very young age,’ he said in the introduction video. ‘I think that right now it’s the ultimate pandemic, so we need to bring light to this.’

RELATED: Biden scolds the Supreme Court to their faces for overturning Roe – NewsFinale

Over the last three years he has talked candidly about his experiences with substances including ketamine, ‘poppy seed tea’ – sometimes used to treat pain – alcohol and nicotine as well as a plethora of prescription medications including Diazepam (Valium), zolpidem, Prozac, trazodone, kratom, Xanax and Adderall, among others.

He was forced to take a break late last year, telling fans in November that he had to ‘step back and take care of my own mental health for a bit.’ He promised he would be ‘coming back soon – stronger, clearer, more intentional than ever.’

But recovery was tough and the following month he opened up about his struggles in a since-deleted video, sharing that he was on 1mg of Buprenorphine, a prescription opioid used to treat both pain and opioid use disorders, twice a day.

He also said that the ‘benzos have been fluctuating up and down depending on what’s been going on in my life’ and that he was taking a dose of Xanax at night or when the ‘panic attacks are really, really bad.’

‘Unfortunately, I’ve had a lot of loss in many different forms recently, so that is not an excuse, but it’s the reason or part of why I am where I’m at now,’ he said. He did not disclose details of the ‘loss.’

In January this year, however, he looked healthy, posing at an event for the release of his close friend Paris Hilton’s second album.

And in March he revealed he had undergone an ‘Ibogaine Flood Dose’ at the Beond Ibogaine clinic in Cancun, Mexico, where treatment starts at $12,500 for a ten-day program.

Patients are administered a high dose of ibogaine, a naturally occurring psychoactive compound derived from the African shrub Tabernanthe iboga that is reported to help withdrawal symptoms and ‘reset brain pathways.’

According to the Ibogaine Institute, such high doses can ‘trigger an intense, often introspective psychedelic or ‘wakeful dream’ experience’ as well as ‘initiate lasting changes in mood, motivation, and behavior.’

It clearly did not work for Presley, who found himself back in rehab shortly before his death despite the best efforts of his family.

‘He hasn’t been sober for years,’ said a family friend. ‘There were always drugs, alcohol or medications. He very rarely had a clear day in the last decade.

‘Prez has been in self-destruct mode for most of his adult life. He had rehabs, counseling and dozens of psychiatrists, but nothing seemed to work. Even having such a loving and supportive family meant nothing in the end.

‘Rande and Cindy both had many lengthy discussions with Prez about the direction his life was going. How he was going deeper and deeper down a rabbit hole. He’d promise to try his best. He was closer to Rande who vowed never to give up on his son.

‘Even Kaia would try to intervene. She loved him so much, but she knew she was powerless.’

Kaia recently opened up for the first time about her brother’s long struggle with depression and drug addiction, which once saw him tattoo his face with the word ‘misunderstood’ to reflect how he felt in life, and also saw him arrested for driving under the influence. He pleaded ‘no contest’ to the charge in 2019 and was sentenced to three years’ probation.

‘When something like that happens in a family, it kind of levels everyone,’ she told Vogue in an interview last month.

Kaia, who also struggled with disordered eating and once claimed she underwent an exorcism as she was told she was ‘possessed,’ said her brother’s issues meant her identity was that of the ‘easy’ child.

An insider previously told the Daily Mail that Presley ‘became like this wild child whose distress was allowed to be visible and disruptive’ while ‘Kaia took an interesting approach by becoming extraordinarily self-contained, competent and a low-needs person.’

They added: ‘They will say that they have very different memories of their childhood. Presley needed help constantly – [that] was the vibe in the house. He gets permission to do that. So, what does she do? She becomes overly controlled, accommodating.’

Despite an extremely tight bond – his last public appearance was supporting his sister at a launch for her collaboration with upcycled denim brand Re/Done in May in Los Angeles – Presley’s failure to match his sister’s success in modeling cannot have helped his feelings of insecurity about living in a wildly successful, A-list family.

Perhaps it is why he started to carve a new path for himself in recent years, focusing on mental health advocacy.

‘I’ve seen a lot of stuff and I’ve learned a lot of things,’ he said on a Mental Health Mondays video. ‘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.’