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Cindy Crawford candidly speaks about her marriage to Richard Gere 30 years later

‘I think I was more willing at 22 to be like: ‘Okay, I’ll follow’ and then you start going, ‘Well, I don’t want to just follow. I want to lead sometimes and I want to walk side by side sometimes,’ famed supermodel says

Kaleigh Werner
New York
Wednesday 20 September 2023 20:37 BST
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Related: Cindy Crawford says her dad thought modelling was a euphemism for prostitution

Cindy Crawford has spoken candidly about her brief marriage to Richard Gere, 30 years after their official split.

The renowned Vogue cover star, 57, fell for the on-screen favourite soon after their initial introduction in 1988. By 1991, the two spontaneously got hitched, eloping in Las Vegas. But, the two called quits by 1995.

Now, the Golden Globe Winner is reflecting on her whirlwind romance as a woman in her early 20s meeting, dating, and marrying a man 16 years older. Crawford got candid on the recently released Apple TV+ docuseries, The Supermodels.

In the beginning of a relationship, when you’re a young woman, you’re like: ‘You like baseball? I like baseball. You’re really into Tibetan Buddhism? I might be into that. I’ll try that,’” the Fair Game lead admitted, referring to the now 74-year-old Pretty Woman actor’s known religion.

“You’re willing to kind of mold yourself around whoever you are in love with,” she continued. “He was older, so I just was like in a different circle and not doing some of those same fashiony things anymore.”

Before her relationship with Gere, Crawford made waves in the fashion industry with catalogue shoots, starting from the moment she was approached by photographer Roger Legel at 16 years old in her hometown DeKalb, Illinois, that led to her inevitable cover feature at 24. However, her relationship with Gere forced her to take a step back from her career.

Still, the lauded style mogul’s affinity for a show-stopping moment was not lost. Her 1991 red carpet appearance at the Academy Awards with the 38-year-old A-lister goes down in history as an irrevocable moment, where high fashion intersected with Hollywood. For the occasion, Crawford donned a red Versace original detailed with a plunging V-cut neckline.

“If I’m going to go to the Oscars, I better be a freaking supermodel,” she remarked. “When I showed up in that red dress, I think it was a little like: ‘Wow, fashion is back at the Oscars.’”

Crawford’s recount of her time spent with Gere is mainly focused on how the time in her life impacted her ability to “change in a relationship”.

She noted: “I just think your twenties for women is such a time where you’re starting to come into your own and feel your own power and connect to your inner strength.”

“And it’s hard to change in a relationship because what one person might have signed up for and then all of a sudden you’re not that anymore,” Crawford went on. “I think I was more willing at 22 to be like: ‘Okay, I’ll follow’ and then you start going: ‘Well, I don’t want to just follow. I want to lead sometimes and I want to walk side by side sometimes.’”

The design muse eventually found her forever person. She tied the knot with Rande Gerber and has since welcomed two children with the businessman – Kaia, 22, and Presley, 24.

Gere married and divorced Carey Lowell before making Alejandra Silva his wife in 2018. Gere and Lowell share one son, Homer, while he and Silva share Alexander, 3, and another son whose name is not known.

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