Presley Gerber spent much of his life surrounded by fashion and fame, but when he was asked what he ultimately hoped to accomplish, his answer had little to do with either.
Gerber, the son of supermodel Cindy Crawford and businessman Rande Gerber, died on September 20 at age 27. His family confirmed the news through a representative and asked for privacy during what they described as a “very difficult and painful time.”
As attention returns to Presley Gerber’s life, comments he made three years earlier offer insight into what he hoped his own difficult experiences could eventually mean for other people.
During a 2023 appearance on the “Studio 22” podcast, Gerber spoke candidly about experiencing depression and other personal struggles before revealing what he wanted to do with the lessons he had learned.
“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, according to PEOPLE.
Presley Gerber’s Life Inspired a Desire to Help Others
Gerber didn’t pretend he had always made the right choices. “I’ve seen a lot of stuff and I’ve learned a lot of things,” he said during the 2023 interview.
“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.” Those “mistakes” weren’t something Gerber fully itemized in that statement, but his other public comments provide important context.
Gerber had spoken openly about experiencing depression and substance abuse. Rather than presenting himself as someone with all the answers, he said he wanted to use what he had experienced to help people dealing with their own difficulties. “That’s really what I want to do: help people,” Gerber said.
He emphasized that there was “no judgment” about what another person might be facing. His willingness to talk publicly about those experiences became even more apparent in the years that followed.
In March 2026, Gerber shared another unusually candid account of seeking treatment for addiction. Gerber wrote that he had been terrified before undergoing treatment and described having to confront things he had previously avoided.
“I faced what I had been running from,” he wrote, adding that he had begun “finding my way back to myself.” His mother responded publicly to the post, telling him she was proud of him, while Kaia celebrated her brother’s efforts as well.
The moment provided a real-life continuation of something Gerber had expressed years earlier: he wasn’t simply acknowledging that he had struggled. He was increasingly willing to let other people see him trying to work through those struggles.
Kaia Gerber Called Her Brother an ‘Absolute Teacher’
One of the clearest indications of how Gerber’s openness affected those around him came from his younger sister. In an interview for Vogue’s September 2026 issue, Kaia reflected on the effect her brother’s difficulties had on their family.
“When something like that happens in a family, it kind of levels everyone,” she said. Kaia explained that the experience contributed to her viewing herself as the “easy one” in the family because she didn’t want her parents to feel they had two children who needed help.
But she also saw something valuable in her brother’s decision to be open about what he was experiencing. While describing their parents as historically “very, very private,” Kaia called Presley an “absolute teacher” who had chosen to be publicly human rather than conceal every difficult part of his life.
“There’s only so much you can hide from the world,” she told Vogue. For Kaia, there was also a lesson in what can happen when families try too hard to hide someone’s difficulties.
“Trying to put a lid on something just makes the person feel like you’re ashamed of them,” she said. Her comments give additional meaning to what Presley had said in 2023 about wanting his experiences to help somebody else. At least within his own family, his decision to speak openly had already made an impression.
Presley Gerber’s Modeling Career Was Another Part of His Story
Presley Gerber’s modeling career gave him a much more public platform than most people his age. Following his mother into fashion, Gerber began modeling as a teenager and eventually worked with major fashion houses and brands.
He was represented by IMG Models and appeared in campaigns and fashion projects for names including Dolce & Gabbana and Calvin Klein. He also appeared alongside Crawford in a 2018 Pepsi commercial that revisited his mother’s famous history with the brand.
His sister followed her own successful path through modeling and acting, and the siblings occasionally worked within the same fashion world. Yet Gerber’s later public comments suggest that professional success wasn’t the only way he hoped to make an impact.
By 2023, Presley Gerber was talking about using some of the most difficult parts of his life to make another person feel understood or perhaps help someone avoid mistakes he believed he had already made. Three years later, Kaia’s description of her brother as an “absolute teacher” showed how his openness had already affected someone particularly close to him.
Gerber never claimed to have figured everything out. His public comments instead documented someone acknowledging his difficulties, seeking help and trying to understand what he had experienced. His cause of death has not been publicly disclosed, and his family has asked for privacy.
That makes it especially important not to assign meaning to Gerber’s death that he never gave it himself. But when it came to what he hoped to do with his life, Presley provided his own answer years ago. If sharing what he had experienced could help even one other person, he said, “that’s all I need to do.”
