Cindy Crawford Opens Up About Losing Brother To Leukemia

Cindy Crawford’s family faced a devastating blow when she was a child. At two years old, her brother, Jeff, was diagnosed with leukemia. Per Good Morning America, the supermodel shared her story candidly with the Kelly Corrigan Wonders podcast. Cindy explained the family learned of his diagnosis in an unusual way.

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“I know this sounds very, like, child abuse, but, you know, we definitely were spanked as kids,” she explained. “My mother, she would say, ‘Go to your room, you’re getting a spanking.’ And that waiting period to your point was just like the worst.”

“I have a brother who died and he had leukemia, and before we knew he had leukemia, one of the symptoms of leukemia is you bruise super easily,” the model explained. “My dad had, like, swatted him, but it left like a handprint on him.”

Cindy Crawford explained that her dad was adamant he didn’t hit her brother hard, and the family learned his diagnosis later that week. She said that was the end of spankings in the Crawford house.

Losing her brother was difficult, but Cindy said she was a young child and didn’t really understand what was happening. The other children knew he was sick, but his death hit differently as an adult.

As a mom, Cindy Crawford looks back at how her mom dealt with the grief of her brother’s death.

“My mom was home and wasn’t working at the time. Like she was able to help us deal with it,” she said. “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.”

She added, “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.”