Cindy Crawford’s son Presley Gerber went into cardiac arrest before he died from a suspected overdose on Sunday, according to a 911 dispatch audio call obtained by Page Six.
The call reveals that an automated voice said “cardiac arrest” and “overdose” before giving the address to the rehab facility Gerber was living in before his death. Sources told the site that cops, an ambulance, and firefighters responded to the scene and stayed for three hours.
The 27-year-old was pronounced dead at 9:45 a.m., according to TMZ. The site reports that police are investigating his death as an overdose, with no foul play suspected.
Gerber was one of two children Crawford, 60, shares with her husband, Rande Gerber, 64. Gerber’s sister Kaia, 25, starred in her first lead role in FX’s The Shards, which finished airing its first season earlier this month. Both siblings had established modeling careers.
Despite early success in the fashion world, Gerber struggled for a decade with substance abuse and his mental health. A source told Page Six that Gerber checked himself into rehab just days before he died. “He knew he needed help,” an insider claimed to the site. “He had not been doing well.”
They added, “He’s always suffered from a huge lack of self-esteem and had trouble accepting his real self and feeling fully confident in who he was as a person.”
“Energetically, he didn’t seem like himself,” they went on, sharing that Presley “felt like he was lacking purpose in his life” and “didn’t really know where he wanted to go and what he wanted to do.”
“He wanted so, so badly to be free of his addictions,” they added.
Gerber spoke openly about his struggles on social media, with support from both parents. Kaia told Vogue in August that Presley’s struggle, and his decision to speak out about it, affected the whole family. “When something like that happens in a family, it kind of levels everyone,” she told the publication, explaining the effects on her own childhood.
“I think that’s also why I started to self-identify as the easy one and never wanted to ask for help,” she said, “Because it felt like too much to have two children who were needing.”
“My parents for most of our lives were very, very private and didn’t share anything—and now we have this absolute teacher, my brother, who says, ‘I’m gonna be very human for everyone.’ 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.” Presley would share updates on his struggles by posting “Mental Health Mondays” videos on his Instagram account.
At the time of his death, the young star was living in separate housing quarters with several others on the rehab facility’s grounds.
The family has made no comments about Presley’s death, except to ask the public for privacy through a representative.
