Kaia Gerber made a rare and heartbreaking admission about the devastating toll her brother Presley Gerber’s years-long battle with addiction took on their famous family, just weeks before his tragic death at age 27, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
Presley died at a yet-unnamed rehab center on Sunday, September 20, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner. An autopsy has yet to be completed.
“When something like that happens in a family, it kind of levels everyone,” Kaia, 25, told Vogue in an interview published on August 11, with the outlet referring to Presley’s “decade-long struggle with drug addiction.”
As a result, the supermodel made sure she was as unproblematic as possible for her famous parents, Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber.
“I think that’s also why I started to self-identify as the easy one and never wanted to ask for help. Because it felt like too much to have two children who were needing,” Kaia confessed.
Presley made a video in December 2025 going into great detail about the various medications he was taking, along with his struggles with anxiety and PTSD, which Kaia praised as a brave act.
“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,'” she explained.
“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,” she continued while referring to the Instagram video, which saw Presley inside a sauna opening up about his struggles by sharing, “honesty is the best policy.”
“Let’s just give you an update,” Presley told followers at the start of the video, admitting, “I’ve had a lot of loss in many different forms recently. That is not an excuse, but it’s the reason — or part of — why I am where I’m at now,” although he didn’t elaborate on the losses that he suffered.
The troubled model went on to describe how he was taking various medications, including buprenorphine, an opioid commonly used to treat opioid addiction, along with two powerful benzodiazepines, Xanax (alprazolam) and Valium (diazepam), which are typically prescribed to treat anxiety.
“The benzos have been fluctuating up and down depending on what’s been going on in my life,” Presley shared. “Xanax (I take) a little bit at night or when the panic attacks are really, really bad.”
He also rattled off a list of other medications he was taking, including the antidepressant mirtazapine and the blood pressure drug prazosin, which he said was prescribed to help combat his “night terrors and PTSD.”
Presley went on to complain that he had been given too much “leeway” over too many medications by too many doctors.
“Every psychiatrist I’ve had — and I’ve had, like, 15 — they’re all like, ‘Here’s 20 medications. Take this if you feel like this, take this as needed. ‘And I’m like, ‘No, don’t give me that much leeway. I need some direction,'” he shared.
On a positive note, Presley said that he hadn’t had alcohol since his birthday five months earlier in July 2025.
“That is no longer serving me,” he admitted about booze, explaining he only had “one or two nights maybe of drinking in the last few years.”