Cindy Crawford's 22-year-old model daughter talks about living a life in the spotlight and how she struggled to deal with the attention after she shot to stardom.
- Feb 17, 2024
AceShowbiz - Kaia Gerber was upset about her celebrity status and "resented fame." The 22-year-old model/actress - daughter of supermodel Cindy Crawford and businessman Rande Gerber - has admitted she wasn't happy with her life in the spotlight so she channelled her frustration into creating a book club on Instagram featuring interviews with authors and she credits the project with giving her focus.
"I think that a big part for me of starting a book club is I did reach a point where I really resented [fame] and felt angry. Why do people get to take something from me when I leave the house? And then all of a sudden, I was like, this gives me something. This can be a gift," she told the Wall Street Journal.
Kaia added that having famous parents didn't affect her too much when she was growing up because they refused to let their profiles stop them doing normal activities with the kids.
She explained, "They never, ever let it dictate what they did or didn't do. It never controlled our life. As a kid, if I wanted to go pick out a Christmas tree, we're going to pick out a Christmas tree. And maybe there would be paparazzi pictures. But my parents would never be like, 'Oh no, I don't want to do that.' "
However, one area of her life she does intend to keep private is her romance with "Elvis" actor Austin Butler, insisting the relationship is "sacred" and she wants to keep it out of the spotlight. She said of her romance, "Honestly, I feel like so few things in my life are private, and that is one of the things I try to keep as sacred as possible."
It comes after Kaia previously admitted she isolated herself at the beginning of her modelling career as she fell into the "trap" of believing the industry was full of back-stabbing. She told the February issue of Elle magazine, "I fell into the trap of believing [modelling is full of catfighting].
"Especially at that time [when she started modelling], I was really shy. I kept to myself, and I was nervous. You're coming from high school girls who are so scary, and so I assumed that that would be the culture."
Kaia added that despite going on to make friends in the modelling business, her travels left her "lonely" when she was away from home and now feels "like I've lived a whole life already."
She credits the lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic with forcing her to reconnect with her loved ones and re-evaluate her life.
She added, "Honestly, it came at a time when I really needed it, and it was a really difficult time in the world, but I really had reached a point where I just felt like I was falling out of love with [modelling], and I didn't know that you could ask for a break. I was forced to stop, and I realised how badly I needed one. When you're being told what to do every day, you don't have time to sit and reflect."
