Cindy Crawford: ’80s Supermodel, Wife, and Soccer Mom

Cindy Crawford met her first husband, Richard Gere, when Crawford was only 21 years old and Gere was already 38. They were introduced at a barbecue in 1987 hosted by the famous photographer Herb Ritt.

Though Crawford’s career was in the midst of taking off, she was still starstruck by the celebs whose company she found herself in, including the likes of Jack Nicholson. The two were married in 1991. When she was 25 and he was 42, they eloped in a Vegas wedding.

Crawford openly discussed the issues inherent in her first marriage on an episode of Oprah’s Master Class in 2014, blaming the age difference for the failure of her first marriage. Part of the issue is that she was still growing up.

She says at 22 she was much more willing to let him take the lead in everything, but as she got older, she didn’t always want to take a supporting role in their marriage, something that Gere had trouble coming to terms with.

Crawford reports that when they two hit it off after their introduction in 1987, things got serious right away. Crawford has mostly kept mum about their short-lived marriage but has said, “We pretty much started dating right away. When I was with him, that’s when I was becoming well-known as well.”

They impulsively flew to Vegas after several years of dating, where they were reportedly married over aluminum foil rings on December 12, 1991, which seemed fishy to the scrutinizing public.

Though Crawford blames their vast age difference on the demise of their union, the marriage was supposedly rocky from the start, due to their equally demanding careers. They were often working on opposite sides of the world from one another — she as a supermodel, and he as one of the top movie stars of the early ’90s.

They were so busy that, apparently, only their secretaries could help them figure out when the other was free.

Shortly before their 1995 divorce, Crawford and Gere publicly addressed rumors about their split, by taking out an ad in the Times of London in May 1994. The ad said, “We are heterosexual and monogamous and…reports of a divorce are totally false.”

It was a bizarre waste of tens of thousands of dollars for a couple that did in fact divorce shortly after. It’s said when they listed their Beverly Hills mansion, neither had ever spent a single night there.

When Crawford finally opened up about the marriage to Gere in Oprah’s 2013 special, she did take the time to discuss the positives of her marriage to the older actor. As he had spent more time in the spotlight, she learned from watching him how to handle things like requests from fans for pictures and autographs.

He taught her that even if she couldn’t always give them what they wanted, it was having a genuine interaction that mattered the most.

Several months before the split, but after their bizarre Times of London ad, Cindy Crawford was seen out and about with John Enos, another actor. The pair were also photographed together in a limo, and Crawford was often seen without her wedding ring.

In another incident, Gere confronted Sylvester Stallone about rumors that he had been with Crawford just days before they announced their divorce. Stallone called the encounter, “The most bizarre thing I’ve ever experienced.”

Nearly 20 years after her high-profile divorce to Richard Gere, Crawford recently admit on the WTF podcast that, “We’re friendly, but I think it’s almost like he’s gone back to being, like, “Richard Gere” again, like a stranger, because we don’t really see each other that much.”

She reiterates that part of the problem is that she was so young when they were married, and he was already so famous, that it was difficult for them to build a deep friendship.

Crawford’s husband of 20 years, Rande Gerber has faced allegations of infidelity in both 2004 and 2009. The first came from a former waitress employed by Gerber named Harmy Kubiak, who claimed to have had relations with the entrepreneur and father of two.

In 2009, similar allegations surfaced, this time from two former employees who claim that they were fired unfairly after Gerber made advances on them, which both declined. He continues to deny the claims from all parties and is still seemingly happily married.

Crawford has two children with her second husband, Rande Gerber, after a childless first marriage to Richard Gere. Both of her children, Presley Walker, who is now 17 and just graduated from high school, and Kaia Jordan, now 15, are models.

They signed with IMG models sometime in 2015 and both have represented major fashion brands on the runway last year, including Dolce & Gabbana and Alexander Wang. Presley and Kaia have been described as the spitting image of Crawford, even down to their prominent cheekbones.

Last winter, Cindy Crawford told Vogue Australia that she fears her daughter Kaia will never be as successful a model as she once was.

She told reporters, “The only concern I have for her, and it isn’t an issue, is that in the modeling world I hit the top, and if she doesn’t it might be a lot of pressure for her. If you have a successful parent and you go into the same business but if you’re not more successful, then what?”

Before having children, starting with Presley Walker in 1999, Crawford revealed she was afraid of having kids. In her February interview with Vogue Australia, she revealed, “I literally thought having kids would be the end of my career. My mom put on a little bit of weight with each kid and she never took it off and I thought it could happen to me. It was scary.”

Luckily, Crawford did have children, both of whom are now models, and her figure is still flawless.

Crawford’s 20-year-old daughter Kaia invoked controversy in her teen years over a selfie she posted on her Instagram page, which appeared fairly provocative for such a young girl.

The comments she received on the almost unclothed selfie included scolding her mother Cindy for allowing her to present herself in such an inappropriate way. One commenter also called her “Lolita”  after the underage object of desire in Vladimir Nabokov’s 1955 novel of the same name, telling her it was “not a good look.”

As daughter Kaia’s modeling career has taken off, Cindy Crawford has given her daughter plenty of career advice. Kaia told E! News, “My mom always just told me to stay true to myself and be myself and I think people don’t remind girls that enough. I think people might try to change themselves a lot in this industry.”

As her daughter has aged, Crawford has stopped going along with her daughter to photoshoots, but still checks in to make sure she’s taking care of herself.

Given that both of Crawford’s children are pursuing the same profession, you might think there’s an air of sibling rivalry between the two, but according to Kaia, that’s simply not the case.

In fact, she considers herself something of a modeling mentor to older brother Presley, who reportedly doesn’t know much about the fashion world, despite his superstar mom. She’s said she has been introducing him to designers and generally helping him navigate the who’s who of the fashion world.

While many have discussed the eerily identical looks of the iconic mother-daughter pair, Kaia has said she doesn’t want to compete with her famous mother.

Kaia told Refinery29 in a recent interview, “The best part is all the advice she can give me. The worst part is how beautiful she is. I don’t ever want to be in a photo next to her because she’s incredible. She doesn’t seem to age, which is not fair.”

Crawford has spoken in interviews about how she tries to be a role model for her kids by not being openly critical about her body in front of them.

As daughter Kaia has transitioned from a pre-teen to a teenager, Crawford has been open about helping her daughter to have a positive self-image after hearing her discuss hating her hair and her eyebrows. Crawford says she can relate to that sentiment, as she felt similarly during her own teen years.

Crawford is often open about coming to terms with her signature mole, just above the corner of her lip. Though she was often teased for it during her school years, her mother urged her not to get it removed. It was sound advice, as many girls tried to copy her with drawn-on moles once she hit superstardom.

Her daughter Kaia did not inherit the mole, but her son Presley did. When he asked about removing it, she shared her mother’s advice with him.

Cindy Crawford has a lot of sage wisdom to offer aspiring models, including her two children. Most of all, she tells fledging fashionistas to do their homework. Research the photographers they will be working with before the shoot in order to understand their style, which will help give the photographers what they want.

She said by studying the work each stylist she was paired with, “I could speak the same language and know what they wanted from me.”

When Cindy Crawford met current husband Rande Gerber, she was still married to ’90s heartthrob Richard Gere. Crawford talks about how she and Gerber were friends first.

According to the star, “Being rooted and based in friendship, it keeps the relationship elevated. There’s always a certain level of respect. We respect each other’s opinion about parenting and our personal life, but also for work stuff […] We really listen to each other. I would want that friendship in my life no matter what.”

When Crawford was in high school, a bunch of jealous girls organized a prank to make Crawford think that a store at a local mall wanted to hire her to model for them. Cindy said at the time, she hadn’t even realized modeling was a job, but she tried her best to look the part anyway.

When she showed up at the store, she was greeted by blank stares and realized that she had been the victim of a mean joke.

When Crawford was young, her close-knit family was torn apart when her baby brother was diagnosed with leukemia at just two years old. Cindy was eight when the family received the tragic news.

Though he went through a number of rounds of treatment, including some that were considered experimental, none of them stuck. Even at three years old, Jeffrey decided he had enough, and he passed away the day his next round of treatment, which he’d stated he wouldn’t go through, was supposed to start.

Part of what helped Crawford change the modeling landscape was her natural intelligence. She was always ambitious and graduated high school as the valedictorian of her class. She was accepted into Northwestern University on full scholarship to study chemical engineering.

But, she dropped out to pursue a modeling career after one semester. She used her drive to sign on to high-profile contracts, and her book smarts to stay on top of the projects and artistic vision of her collaborators.

At 51 years old, Crawford still has plenty of mornings where she doesn’t always love her looks. Even though she tries to remain confident about her self-image, she has reported that as she’s gotten older, she warns photographers who request the four AM call times of her youth that they may not want to shoot her that early in the morning.

“I’ll get up whenever you want…but my face doesn’t really like to get up before seven or eight in the morning,” she says.

As a young model, Crawford had no qualms about posing in Playboy, and even now while she won’t quite go the full monty anymore, she’s still willing to partially disrobe for photoshoots. She said her biggest problem now is the reactions of her son and husband.

She told Los Angeles Times that her son has come to her with some of sister Kaia’s Instagram photos, which Cindy thinks are tastefully appropriate, but her son and husband discount her opinion because of her “uncovered” past.

Cindy Crawford once stood on a corner in Paris with photographer Helmut Newton. He had her dressed in what she calls his “uniform” — heels and a bathing suit. She recalls Newton setting a hat on the ground and offering a polaroid photo with Crawford to anyone who walked past…if they paid 100 francs each.

According to Crawford, the two of them stayed out there having a blast until they’d earned enough money to buy themselves a nice lunch.

As social media has proliferated, even Crawford and her husband have created online presences for themselves. Crawford has said she appreciates that with platforms like Instagram, any girl can become a model, not just those like her daughter who already have an in.

Her daughter Kaia, however, is embarrassed by how uncool her mom’s Instagram is. The two openly discussed how Kaia teased Crawford about her overuse or misuse of hashtags in an interview they did together on The Thick.

Later in the interview, Crawford revealed that she had hoarded designer clothes for her daughter to eventually wear. Crawford had hoped that Kaia wouldn’t start modeling until she was at least 17, but didn’t stop her from signing a contract with an agency at 13.

The closet of clothing from Cindy’s younger years is just waiting for Kaia to eventually grow into them. Given how similar they already look, that day is probably not far off.

Though most celebrities have gotten caught up with all sorts of fitness trends, from Crossfit to SoulCycle, Cindy Crawford told Harper’s Bazaar in an interview in 2015 that she’s been following the same fitness routine for over 20 years.

With a few modifications, she said it’s almost the exact routine she presented to the world in her fitness videos, of which she’s released four. The first two were released in 1992 and 1993, and the last two were released in 2000 and 2001.

Cindy Crawford is open about her attempts to age gracefully, but the 56-year-old model has not been immune to the plastic surgery trend. She admits to having had botox injections, even though they apparently scare her.

She also says she would try plastic surgery, despite that too scaring her. Her reasoning is that she doesn’t think she should be using surgical enhancement to change the way she looks — just to preserve it. She adds that, if it does change you, then it’s failed.

Crawford quickly moved from the runway to the small screen in MTV’s House of Style, as well as many televised commercials. In 1995, she made her big screen debut in the film, Fair Game, which she followed up a few years later with The Simian Line.

Both films completely bombed. For her performance in Fair Game, critics hit hard at her lack of acting chops. After her failure to find a foothold in film, she mostly stuck to playing herself in a variety of TV shows.

In 2015, at age 48, a photo of Crawford claiming to be an unretouched image from a fashion shoot began circulating the internet. It turned out, the stolen image was unflatteringly photoshopped to Crawford’s detriment.

Crawford countered with her own candid photos, showing just how beautiful she really is.

When Crawford caught wind of the horrible, false photo being shared of her, she immediately contacted her lawyers, who threatened every publication sharing the photo that she would sue if they did not remove the image from their websites.

The photographer who shot the image, John Russo claimed the image was stolen from a 2013 shoot for Marie Claire Mexico, before being modified to falsely show Crawford in a negative light. The photo went viral after being posted on Twitter.

Seven months after her falsely modified “real” body made waves online, Crawford finally spoke out about the incident saying, “I know my body, and I know it’s not perfect, but maybe I have a false body image; maybe I think I look better than I do…even though that picture didn’t reflect what I saw when I looked in the mirror.”

Husband Rande Gerber released his own unmodified photo of the supermodel on his Instagram shortly after the fake photo spread across the internet.

Crawford further clarified that even though she felt the false image was “malicious,” she felt conflicted about the incident as many women found it empowering to see her portrayed with a lumpy midsection and cellulite.

The magazines that shared the image did so under the guise of empowerment, showing that even a supermodel looked like a regular person. Crawford is glad women found her more relatable after the image broke, even though it wasn’t conveying the truth.

Crawford has never been shy about her relationship with her husband of nearly 30 years, Rande Gerber. They often post photos of one another enjoying each other’s company. She’s said of their relationship that it’s important to schedule date night because otherwise it gets lost.

Included in their dinner and movie plans is also some bedroom action, which is one of her keys to keeping the spark alive for this long. She also says they make sure to spend some time alone every night.

What has Cindy said is the biggest secret to staying happy after 20 years? Prioritizing her husband’s needs. She is careful to attain a good work-life balance, so that he never feels ignored.

“If I’m away for three days,” she tells the Daily Telegraph, “Then I make sure I’m around the next week. I’m very realistic about how much time stuff takes and I find the balance.” Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Rande Gerber is still completely in love with her as well.