What happened to Cindy Crawford's brother? Model recently talked about feeling "survivor guilt" after his death

Cindy Crawford detailed the loss and emotional scars that came with her brother’s death. The former supermodel’s brother, Jeffrey, died at the age of three following a battle with leukemia, two years after he was first diagnosed.

The 58-year-old detailed the pain of losing her brother so young on the latest episode of Kelly Corrigan Wonders: About Your Mother podcast on Saturday. Talking about the “guilt” that she and her sisters felt at the time, she told hosts Kelly Corrigan and Christy Turlington:

“My dad wanted a boy, so the fourth was the boy. And I think that there was a lot of guilt…there’s that survivor’s guilt of the other kids, especially because we knew that my dad really wanted a boy, and we felt like, well, it should have been one of us.”

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“My sisters and I would have these same nightmares” — Cindy Crawford details the guilt about her brother’s death

Talking about navigating through the loss with her sisters Chris and Danielle in the podcast, Cindy Crawford detailed that they would all have the same nightmares.

The runway icon said:

“It was weird, for years, my sisters and I would have all these same nightmares, that it should have been one of us.”

The former supermodel, who was only nine when her brother died, admitted to seeking the help of therapy to overcome the tragedy. She mentioned doing some coaching during the pandemic, then added:

“I actually had time to do real work, and I realized that one of the questions the coach asked me was something like, ‘What did you need to hear at that time that you didn’t hear?’”

Elaborating on the answer her coach/therapist asked, Cindy Crawford said:

“[But] I needed to hear, ‘Yes, we’re so sad that Jeff died, but we’re so happy you are here.”

That said, the runway icon admitted that her mom, who was 26 when her brother died, wouldn’t have known how to say it.

Elsewhere on the podcast, the mom of two elaborated on the topic of loss in general, saying just how differently it was approached back then. She mentioned that people don’t talk about death and what to say to other people when they lose someone.

Looking back on her brother’s death and how it was handled, which happened when she was still in third grade, the runway icon detailed:

“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, ‘ saw in the paper your brother’s dead. Is that true?’”

Crawford admitted that the question made her pause because it was so “in your face,” but also admitted that the kid didn’t know what to say.

Cindy Crawford elaborated that a lot of people choose to ignore talking about it, opting out of bringing it up to avoid getting the person upset.

However, the former supermodel shared her thoughts about the subject, saying:

“And for me anyway, I don’t feel like that’s inviting an opportunity to cry, laugh, share, or whatever.”

The former model also mentioned trying to help her kids say the right words in such events, referring to her son Presley Gerber and daughter Kaia Gerber, who she said have both lost friends.