Tragic Details About Cindy Crawford's Daughter Kaia Gerber

Model and actor Kaia Gerber lives a life of which we mere mortals can only dream. She's a successful model and actor with a lavish upbringing thanks to her famous parents Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber, Celebrity Net Worth claimed she's worth $5 million in her own right, and she boasts millions of followers on social media. But Kaia proves just because everything looks picture perfect on the outside, it doesn't mean she hasn't faced serious struggles.

Despite being a gorgeous supermodel who's covered the likes of Vogue Paris, Elle, and Harper's Bazaar France, Kaia shared she limits her social media use because of the negative impact it has on her body image. "Everyone's just showing their highlight reel which can make you feel really bad," she told Elle U.K. in 2022. "I think you have to learn what your own threshold for it is — mine's quite low!" But self-esteem issues are hardly the only tough thing Kaia has had to work through.

Kaia Gerber has dealt with nasty remarks from social media trolls for years. In fact, things got so bad when Kaia was 14 that her mom Cindy Crawford had to publicly defend her. "On Kaia's Instagram, people, not even other kids, women, will say, 'You're too young to be modeling. Just be a kid.' And it's like they're criticizing me and my parenting. So, why don't you do it on my Instagram? I'm a 49-year-old woman, I can respond," the supermodel told The Cut in 2015. "You're bullying a child. You might not think of it that way, but that's what you're doing," she added. The negative remarks seemingly got so bad Kaia told Vogue almost a decade later she no longer allowed public comments on her Instagram.

The constant less-than-kind social media interactions may explain why Kaia chose to keep her three-year romance with Austin Butler off social media. When asked about her relationship by The Wall Street Journal in 2024, the model hit back, "Honestly, I feel like so few things in my life are private, and that is one of the things that I try to keep as sacred as possible."

Kaia Gerber is so close to her brother Presley Gerber that he even has her name tattooed on his body, so Presley's very public addiction issues have no doubt been tough for the "Palm Royale" star. Presley, who's endured several of his own tragedies, opened up about his drug addiction and desire to get clean on Instagram Stories in 2024. The year prior, he got candid about his mental health on the "Studio 22 Podcast" and explained he wanted to help others by speaking about his experiences. "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," Presley said.

Though Kaia hasn't spoken publicly about her brother's addiction or mental health, she has shared how important he is to her and their unwavering support for each other. "Presley is my entire world and what I always say is, he's my only sibling," she told L'Officiel Singapore in 2018. "So he's the one person I know who's always going to be there for me and have my back, and I have eternal love for him."

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

Presley Gerber isn't the only member of the Crawford/Gerber clan to speak openly about mental health, as Kaia Gerber has been vocal about her own experiences. In 2023, she told Elle how being forced to step back from modeling amid the COVID-19 pandemic made her realize she hadn't been prioritizing her health and wasn't as in love with her career as she once thought. "When you're forced to sit with yourself ... you're aware of all the stuff you haven't dealt with. There wasn't communication happening between me and myself, and I felt out of body sometimes," she said. Kaia also alluded to not taking proper care of herself and putting work first, sharing, "My personal life and my mental health are not something I'm willing to sacrifice for my job ever again." She added she'd learned to take her mental health seriously and had cut back on traveling, also spending more time with her family and undergoing therapy.

Two years earlier, Kaia told Glamour U.K. she journals every day (which can have a positive impact on the brain) to keep her mental health in check. "I write every morning things that I'm grateful for, things that I can do to make myself happy today," she said. "Then I check back in at the end of the night and I write again the things that would have made today better, only things that I can control though, and things that made me happy today and that I'm grateful for again," she added.

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.

Kaia Gerber has been dealt the devasting blow of a close friend's tragic and sudden death more than once. In 2021, she lost her pal and actor Daniel Mickelson. The model shared a screenshot from a FaceTime call with Michelson on Instagram Stories alongside a touching message about the good times they shared. "I remember that time we sat on the couch and spent the whole day coming up with our own secret language that we continued to speak every time we saw each other. I wish we could go back there," she wrote in part (via Hello!). "I wish we were still talking in sentences that probably annoyed everyone else but made us crack up every time," Kaia added. The supermodel concluded her sweet note by thanking the rising star for how happy he made her. "I love you Daniel," she wrote. Three months after his passing aged 23, it was confirmed Mickelson lost his life to an accidental drug overdose.

Mickelson's untimely passing came the year after Gerber also publicly mourned her friends Ryan Breaux and Ezekiel "Zeek" Bishop, who died in a car accident aged just 18 and 20. The star uploaded photos and videos of herself with the duo on Instagram with a heartbreaking caption. "My heart is so heavy right now. I can't put into words how grateful I am for every second I was lucky enough to spend with you. the two people who made me smile the biggest. I will never forget that," she wrote. "I promise to keep trying to smile for you, I love you both forever."

Kaia Gerber and Austin Butler's relationship was full of signs it wouldn't last, and their once fairytale romance seemingly turned sour while fraught with rumors. "Austin isn't going to be truly happy until he's with a star on his same heavyweight talent level," a source told Life & Style in May 2024. "It's the classic Brad Pitt conundrum: is he willing to look like the bad guy to get the relationship he knows he really wants and needs?" The insider even claimed Butler was turned off because he didn't believe his then-girlfriend was serious about her career, adding, "This is not a match made in heaven."

The relationship was also hit with speculation that Rande Gerber and Cindy Crawford, who Kaia is famously close to, grew unhappy about the "Master of Air" star not making marriage plans after three years of dating. "They don't think for a minute he isn't serious about her, but he's 33 and isn't it time he thought about settling down?" a Daily Mail source said in October 2024. Another Daily Mail insider claimed in January 2025 that "what really sealed the deal about the break up is the talk Kaia's parents had with Austin about his relationship with their daughter. He didn't appreciate the fact they butted into their relationship." That surely made Kaia face a difficult and tragic situation.  

Crawford and Rande never publicly commented on the reports, though things seemed strained between Kaya and Butler on Kaia's 23rd birthday in September 2024. She spent the day with her family and friends but without her then-boyfriend at Disneyland, and their breakup was then confirmed in January 2025.