Cindy Crawford, the iconic supermodel, expressed her deepest condolences at the passing of her brother Jeffrey. She shared behind-the-scenes stories in a podcast episode that was released on Apr 25, 2023. The 59-year-old Crawford opened up about how Jeffrey’s illness and death drastically shifted her family’s structure. She’s still traumatized, she said, as she vividly remembered the near-fatal childhood ordeal.
Jeffrey was diagnosed with leukemia at the young age of two, just before his third birthday. Crawford reflected on the emotional distress her family experienced during this time. At the time, she was eight years old. At the same time, her older sister was only ten, and her younger sister just four. Jeffrey battled the disease for two long years. Meanwhile, during that period, Crawford and her sisters lived with their extended family while their brother was getting treatment.
He continued to marvel at his family’s remarkable survival. Yet, just a week later, they discovered Jeffrey had leukemia. She highlighted her mother’s important role in supporting them through their coping with the tragedy. At the moment, her mother was out of work and threw herself into caring for them.
“My mom was home and wasn’t working at the time. Like she was able to help us deal with it,” – Cindy Crawford
After Jeffrey’s death, which created an immeasurable hole, their mother made holistic healing her priority for the family. Crawford’s father returned to work just days after losing his son, dealing with grief in a manner that differed from his wife’s.
Crawford reflected on the kind of mother her mom was in this traumatic period, as she described how discipline was still enforced even after they’d lost everything.
“I know this sounds very, like, child abuse, but, you know, we definitely were spanked as kids,” – Cindy Crawford
She continued to explain some of the disciplinary tactics even used in their own home. Her mother always used to tell her father not to be so strict.
“You can’t be hitting the kids that hard, you know, that’s not a spanking,” – Cindy Crawford’s mother.
By her own account, in her reflections, Crawford communicated the heaviness of what it is to lose a sibling. She did not understand the magnitude of this loss until she became a mother herself. It was her personal experience through which the true realization started to form.
“I remember when I had my first kid and like I called my mom and said, ‘Okay, how did you survive?’ You know — you can’t imagine losing a child until you have a child. And even then, you don’t want to imagine it,” – Cindy Crawford
What helped Crawford recover from grief, she said, was her mother’s uncompromising desire to take care of her other children. This fierce determination became the fuel for her recovery.
“But I remember her saying, ‘Well I had three other kids looking at me to lead them through this,’ and I think that because of us, she kinda got out of bed and did what she had to do,” – Cindy Crawford
Even in the face of such a tragic loss, the Crawford family found ways to grieve and support one another.
