Another Victim of Hollywood and Fame

So how does this happen? How does somebody with all of life's advantages seemingly die of a drug overdose in a rehab center before his 30th birthday? He had beauty. He had money. He had, from all accounts, loving parents, a sister who adored him. He had success. I mean crushing it in the modeling industry. He had a great education in his K-12 schooling. He had access to very powerful people, including his own parents. His dad is, by all accounts, a billionaire, both thanks to his... He had a line of nightclubs. He would own the nightclubs in fancy hotels and sort of cachet bars and drinking areas. And then, of course, he, with his buddy George Clooney, started Casamigos Tequila and sold it for a reported billion dollars. So not to mention Cindy Crawford's money. So how does this happen? I mean, are those the reasons? Are all of those the reasons that he became a drug addict? I don't know is the answer. I don't know this family. But I did learn a lot when we did this deep dive on Presley Gerber last year after I saw that Instagram post and said, this is not going to end well. The number of medications he cited, you know, I was just looking them up. Virtually every single one of those, a side effect is drowsiness. Now you tell me if you're taking five or six meds at once, all of which have a side effect of drowsiness, and you are already a depressed person, what that could do to you? Everything was a drug cocktail and you heard this guy begging to get off of it. But hold on, before I get to that, before I get to the drug cocktail and what the system does to anybody who expresses any statement about depression, which is medicate them immediately. He was begging in that video to be titrated off of it, but couldn't seem to find a doctor to help him. That's what he was saying explicitly. But prior to that, what was Presley Gerber's life like? Growing up the child of two people who seem in love, who by all accounts aren't drug addicts themselves, but we don't know that to be honest. And Kaya Gerber also told Vogue in August that her mother has always been a very private person. She's got her, obviously her public persona, but that she doesn't out the family problem. So I mean, the truth is, we don't know. I have no reason to believe it's so. Well, he has, he told us, he explained what it was like growing up and the thing that brought him the most happiness when he was a young boy, an adolescent. Listen here on Sot 4. I just think it's, there's something to be said about when I started working, which was like around the age of 14. And I started traveling and I stopped doing like all this, you know, I was maybe in New York shooting something, or I had to do a thing in Europe that like, you know, and there's more like 15, 16. But the, what I'm trying to say is the less activity that was in my life, especially for me, the ocean, like the more medication I found having to be integrated into my life. And the more I just, the quality of life rapidly decreased with a decrease in natural endorphins and dopamine and that kind of stuff. Like I had to start making money. I had to start, I got a job. I mean, I was working at a smoothie place by the time I was 14. And I'm not saying that, oh, I shouldn't, you know, they should have just, my parents should have just let me serve all day and dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. What would the outcome have been? I don't know, but I can say for sure. And I've, I still firmly believe by, you know, this, because there's data, activity is important. And if you're someone who likes dopamine, adrenaline and physical activity is a very important thing to integrate in your life. And I think that you will be a lot happier if you do it. It's also, I mean, it's something to be said about the more that we've I mean, like you think about, and I'm not going to give dates because history is not my forte, but I'm talking back a while ago when we weren't living in structures like this and drinking things out of cans, we needed a whole lot less. And I just think that there's something to be said there. He talked about how, what he loved most prior to his modeling career was surfing and water polo and about how he used to spend an average of 10 hours on many days in the water, either playing water polo, which is a demanding sport. I actually just realized that water polo is played in the deep end of the pool. That's how clueless I have been about that sport. But yeah, I mean, think of the shape you have to be in, in order to be an excellent water polo player. And apparently he was, and also an excellent surfer. I mean, that's every muscle in the body, especially when you're serving out there in California where the waves come, they come regularly. And he was loving it. I don't know what he's talking about. I had to get a job at age 14 selling smoothies. I mean, it's possible his parents were trying not to raise someone who was a freeloader, you know, who felt their wealth and thought everything would be handed to him. It seems odd to me that any parent would tell a 14-year-old, you must work or else I don't know what really happened there. But he himself pointed out the endorphin flow he got, the natural serotonin boost he got from surfing and being in the water, whether it was water polo or on the ocean. And that that all stopped when he got commercialized. There he is with his little sister, Kaya. And let's face it, both kids were commercialized. He said he was signed when he was 15. Kaya was signed when she was 13 to these major modeling agencies. And Cindy Crawford of all people should have known the dangers of that. She should have known the dangers. I mean, not for nothing, but with his good looks, that gorgeous face and the bone structure and all that. And you've got a teenage boy being sent over to New York, to Europe, Hollywood. And he remarked several times about how bizarre it was to grow up in Hollywood. And you better watch him. There are predators in that industry. Predators in modeling, in music, in Hollywood. We know this. I mean, we all know this. So something very damaging happened to Presley Gerber along the way. And I don't know what it was. I only know what he told me in the videos that I've watched and that some of which you've seen. He missed his active childhood. It doesn't sound like he really wanted to be a model. Think about this. In 2006, $20,000 equaled roughly 33 ounces of gold at spot price. At today's prices, those 33 ounces would be worth about $165,000. 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I think my sister was 13. We got scouted and signed like the same day. Getting thrown into the modeling industry, it's like you sink or swim. That's like bottom line. So you just, you, you're thrown into it and you immediately have to know how everything works. I remember within the first week of signing, I'm like in New York, people are taking pictures of me like shirt off. I'm like, this is, you know, like just my whole life changed within a month. And like, it was just, it was a, it was just a very profound experience because I had to grow up quickly. All of a sudden I'm in social media school and I'm sitting in a class where I'm literally being told how to answer questions. When people tell you, when people ask you this, we want you to respond with this. When people ask you this, we want you to speak like this. And, you know, obviously, I've clearly forgotten a lot of those skills, you know, over the years, but it was, yeah, like you said, it was, it was interesting being thrown into that mix where you're around now these celebrities. And we were definitely some of the younger ones at the, at the agency. Can you imagine? I mean, honestly, can you imagine putting your 13 year old and 15 year old in modeling? I just, I just think it's a reckless decision. I think it's known to be a terrible industry. The same as putting them into singing. The odds are overwhelmingly against them growing up to be well people. And look, this is just my, and I have nothing but empathy today for Cindy Crawford and Randy Gerber, nothing but empathy for them. I'm sure they are in the depths of despair. They've issued a statement confirming that he died and asking for privacy. They don't want to make any public statements or be asked for them. And I don't blame them. This is for the rest of us. This is, this is not about how they parented necessarily though in part it is, I don't think it was a good idea to put young children in modeling, but it's really about parents who in general are allowing their children to grow up or forcing them to too soon, 13 years old, 15 years old, going to Europe and doing modeling contracts and doing social media school where you learn what, how, how you have to present, which is not your authentic self and hint and being thrust into a vapid, toxic, empty industry where the only thing that is prized is your outward appearance. No one gives two shits, what your inner strength is, what your inner beauty is, what your inner wind wisdom is. They couldn't care less. I mean, back when I would occasionally go and have a magazine shoot when I was at Fox and so on, the models were talking about how they would have three, like they cater these events and the models would have three little tortellinis, like the little tiny ones that you might serve in a bowl of pasta. And they would, they would use a knife and a fork to cut them up and eat them as a meal. I mean, that's chain smoking. And he talked about how he began smoking at rehab. He said, because that's what one does. So he was already in and out of rehab. He said he was an addict by the time he was 18. Now that would have taken a while. So let's assume 17 is when at the latest the drinking and the drugs began. So it took two years of him entering the modeling industry for him to become an addict and three for him to need inpatient rehab. I mean, this is not a win, not a win. We really, really value your input and your support. 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