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Celebrity

Cindy Crawford Opens Up About Suffering 'Survivor Guilt' And Nightmares As A Child After Her Brother Tragically Passed Away

May 16, 2024 by Maria Pierides
shefinds | Celebrity
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Cindy Crawford experienced some heartbreaking moments very early in life, as her younger brother passed away from leukemia at just three years old. Cindy was just eight years old when her then two-year-old brother Jeffrey was first diagnosed, and he passed away when he was three.

The 58-year-old supermodel opened up about her brother’s tragic passing on the Saturday, May 11th episode of the Kelly Corrigan Wonders podcast, and confessed that she regularly experienced “survivor guilt” when she was younger.

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Cindy Crawford Opens Up About The 'Guilt' She And Her Sisters Faced Following Their Brother's Tragic Passing

The ageless brunette beauty – who also has two sisters, Chris and Danielle – spoke about their father John Crawford's desires to have a boy before her baby brother Jeffrey was born. She then explained that she and her sisters constantly felt guilty that their brother tragically passed away after their father had longed for a boy for so long, even going as far as feeling like it "should've been" one of the three girls who passed.

"My dad wanted a boy, so the fourth was the boy and I think that there was a lot of guilt," Cindy explained to Kelly Corrigan and Christy Turlington Burns.

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Cindy, who shares 22-year-old daughter Kaia Gerber and 24-year-old son Presley Gerber with husband Rande Gerber, continued: "There's like that survivor guilt of the other kids and especially because we knew that my dad really wanted a boy. We felt like, 'Well it should've been one of us.'"

"It was so weird, like for years, my sisters and I would all have these same nightmares, that it should've been one of us," Cindy confessed, before going on to explain how her classmates didn't show much compassion following her brother's passing.

"I remember when I went back to school after my brother died, not one person said one thing to me, no kidding, except for one kid who was like, 'I saw in the paper your brother's dead. Is that true?' I was like, 'Whoa.' It was so in your face, but he didn't know what to say. We were in third grade."

Author:

Senior Celebrity Writer

Maria has spent the last decade writing about entertainment, fashion, and lifestyle for online and print publications all around the globe – including InStyle, OK!, and The Mirror. At SheFinds, Maria covers breaking celebrity news, red carpet looks, celebrity transformations, A-list couples, and has a watchful eye on celebrity social media accounts. You can reach her at contactmariapierides@gmail.com

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