It is important to note that, at the time of writing, the definitive cause of his death has not yet been officially established. The Los Angeles County coroner has carried out a post-mortem examination, but the cause and circumstances of death have been left pending further results, particularly toxicological findings.
These tests may take several weeks, or even several months. The Santa Monica police are nevertheless investigating what they describe as an apparent overdose and state that there is currently no evidence to suggest the involvement of a third party. Several US media outlets, including *People*, report that a cardiac arrest may have occurred in these circumstances, but this is not yet the coroner’s official conclusion.
This caution is all the more important given that Presley Gerber was, in fact, in a care facility when he died. His death cannot, therefore, be reduced to the simplistic image of a famous young heir who partied one too many times. For several years, he had spoken publicly about his mental health struggles and his relationship with drugs. Just one month before his death, his sister Kaia Gerber had spoken to Vogue about a battle with addiction which, she said, had been going on for around ten years. She also explained how deeply this situation had affected the whole family and had led her, in particular, to become the child who never asked for anything, so as not to add to the problems her parents were already facing.
Presley, for his part, had gradually adopted a strategy that was the opposite of that of his family, who were traditionally very protective of their privacy: he chose to speak out. In 2025, he launched a series on Instagram called ‘Mental Health Mondays’, designed to spark conversations about topics that many prefer to keep hidden. He spoke openly about his anxiety attacks, his treatments, his periods of substance use and his attempts to regain stability. The public image of the handsome young man born into a privileged family was beginning to crack, revealing someone who was clearly seeking to understand what was happening to him and to turn his experience into something useful for others.
In March 2026, six months before his death, he had once again gone public with a particularly radical step in his journey. Presley Gerber had travelled to Cancún, Mexico, to undergo treatment with ibogaine, a psychoactive substance being studied for its potential effects on certain addictions but which is not authorised as a treatment in the United States and whose use carries serious risks. He had posted images taken before the session and described being terrified by the experience, whilst hoping it might mark a decisive turning point. Cindy Crawford had publicly encouraged her son, describing him as a ‘warrior’. Kaia had also expressed her pride.
It is against this backdrop that an image from six years ago takes on particular significance today: that of Presley Gerber with a word tattooed beneath his right eye. In February 2020, at the age of 20, he visited Jonathan ‘JonBoy’ Valena, a tattoo artist well known to American celebrities. On the upper part of his right cheek, just below his eye, he had a single word inscribed in relatively discreet yet impossible-to-hide lettering: ‘Misunderstood’.
At the time, the tattoo had mainly provoked ridicule and bewilderment. Why would a young model, whose face was literally one of his professional tools, choose to mark it so visibly? On social media, some accused him of being a spoilt child seeking attention. Others wondered how Cindy Crawford – for decades the embodiment of an almost classical beauty – could have reacted upon discovering her son’s tattooed face. The harshness of the comments eventually prompted Presley to respond himself.
And his response was far less mysterious than one might have imagined. During an Instagram Live session, he explained, in essence, that nobody knew how he felt or what was going on in his head. Regarding the word he’d chosen, he simply summed it up: “I don’t feel very understood, I guess”, in other words: “I suppose I don’t really feel understood.” ”
Looking back from 2026, it’s tempting to interpret this tattoo as a harbinger of tragedy.
That would be taking things too far. There is no evidence to establish a direct link between this act in 2020 and the exact circumstances of his death six years later. But it would be just as contrived to ignore what Presley himself said about that word. ‘Misunderstood’ wasn’t a label applied to him retrospectively by journalists: it was the term he chose to describe his own feelings at the age of 20. We now know that his struggles with addiction and mental health did not emerge just a few weeks before his death, but were part of a much longer history. His sister herself spoke of a battle that had dominated much of their youth.
The tattoo did not, in fact, remain permanently on his face. As early as the summer of 2021, Presley was photographed in Malibu without the inscription. Where ‘Misunderstood’ had once been, only a faint mark remained, suggesting that he had begun the process of having it laser-removed. He had therefore worn that word on his face for approximately a year and a half.
This detail makes his story even more complex. It would be all too easy, after his death, to construct a narrative that is too perfect: a deeply unhappy young man who had ‘misunderstood’ tattooed on his cheek, who turned to drugs and then died at the age of 27. The reality is less dramatic and undoubtedly more painful. Between getting the tattoo in 2020 and his death in 2026, Presley Gerber actually made numerous attempts to get better. He had the inscription removed. He underwent various treatments. He spoke publicly about mental health. He sought ways to overcome his addiction. As recently as 11 June 2026 in Malibu, he took part in an event dedicated to mental health alongside his parents. He therefore did not come across as a man who had given up, but rather as someone engaged in a particularly difficult struggle.
His death also reveals something that fame sometimes obscures: money, beauty, connections and privilege do not provide absolute protection against addiction or psychological distress. Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber had access to the care and the best specialists that their circumstances could afford. Their son was well supported. He was seeking help. And yet the illness continued to weigh heavily on him and those around him. It is perhaps this contradiction that makes his story particularly poignant.
The strangest thing, ultimately, is perhaps not that Presley Gerber had ‘Misunderstood’ tattooed on his face. It is that, in 2020, this act was largely treated as a celebrity son’s whim, even though the young man was already explaining quite simply that he did not feel understood. Six years later, following his death in a centre where he was still trying to seek treatment, that word has obviously taken on a different resonance. We mustn’t turn it into a prophecy. But it now appears to be one of the first moments when Presley Gerber decided to make visible – literally on his face – something that no one could see from the outside.
The medical conclusion, however, will have to wait. Until the toxicology reports and the coroner’s final report have been published, it would be premature to claim that Presley Gerber ‘died of an overdose’ as if it were a definitively established fact. What we know for certain is that he died on 20 September 2026, aged 27, in a rehabilitation centre, after several years of publicly battling addiction and mental health issues. And that, long before this struggle became public knowledge, he had chosen a surprisingly simple word to describe how he felt: misunderstood.
