At just 27, Presley Gerber was still trying to find his way through a battle he had never been afraid to speak about publicly.
The son of supermodel Cindy Crawford and businessman Rande Gerber had spent years opening up about mental health, addiction and recovery.
But now, following his sudden death, one of his final social media posts is being looked at in a very different light.
Presley died on Sept. 20 at a rehabilitation facility in Los Angeles, according to records from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner. His family confirmed his death and asked for privacy during what they described as an extremely painful time. A cause of death has not been released, and an autopsy is still pending.
Just months earlier, Presley had shared a deeply personal glimpse into his recovery journey.
In a March Instagram post, the model documented his experience undergoing an ibogaine treatment, describing the moments before it began as frightening.
“Quiet moment before everything changed,” he wrote. “I was absolutely terrified, and I knew I would be again if I ever had to face something like this.”
He went on to describe what he hoped the experience would teach him, including learning to surrender some of the control he had been holding onto.
“letting go of control didn’t come easy, but I trusted there was something bigger than me guiding it,” Presley wrote.
He also described confronting things he had spent years trying to escape.
“I knew why I was there. I faced what I had been running from, and somewhere in all of it, I started finding my way back to myself,” he wrote.
Then came a line that is particularly difficult to read following his death.
Presley said he was “praying it’s the last time I have to come back,” referring to the treatment, before thanking the people who had helped him through the experience.
He ended the post on a lighter note, writing, “And I made some dope ass friends there.”
His family stood behind him
The post was met with messages of support from the people closest to Presley.
His mother, Cindy Crawford, praised her son in the comments.
