Richard Gere's Turbulent Marriage With Supermodel Cindy Crawford

Mar 20, 2022 by apost team

Actor Richard Gere is known for his charming ways, which led him to become one of Hollywood's leading heartthrobs in the 1980s and '90s. And as is the case for any Hollywood hunk, his personal life was just as interesting to the public as his onscreen lives were. The fact that he was married to supermodel Cindy Crawford — one of the biggest models in the world at the time — in the '90s, during the height of his fame, made the public even more interested.

Photographed together at events looking absolutely gorgeous, the couple was a favorite in Hollywood at the time, what with a leading actor and fashion supermodel merging worlds. But while their union might have appeared picture-perfect from the outside, their four-year marriage ultimately didn't last. Despite both of them experiencing their share of gay rumors at the time, even leading them to publicly comment on the situation multiple times, that wasn't what tore them apart.

Decades after their relationship ended, Crawford opened up about aspects of why it didn't work in an interview with People. From a 17-year age gap to not spending a lot of time together, the relationship inevitably went south. What's more, it appears that Gere didn't appear to want to get married in the first place, with Crawford eventually giving him an ultimatum to take their relationship to the next level or end it. Sadly, it seems their split was inevitable from the start. Let's take a look at their love story and what actually happened. 

Gere was taking over Hollywood after his early successful movies in the 1980s when he met Crawford in 1988 at a celebrity-studded barbecue. Soon after, Crawford spoke about how they talked, which led to more meetings and dates. She would fall for the infectiously charming Gere and they'd continue dating for some time.

The couple became inseparable and blazed the hottest Hollywood scenes with paparazzi in tow, leading them to become one of Hollywood's power couples at the time. All of this exposure began to raise wedding questions, with fans and the media just waiting to hear the good news.

A People article published while they were married details that Gere was nervous about taking the next step. He told the publication:

“I was a holdout at age 42, and this woman who I was crazy about and loved very much said, ‘I can’t wait. I gotta move on if it ain’t happening.’"

But the risk of losing his love was too great and gave him the push he needed. So come Dec. 12, 1991, the power couple chose to take a jet and fly to Las Vegas to wed. Far from over-the-top, this small wedding only featured a few hand-picked guests of close friends and family members and makeshift tin-foil rings. Crawford has said, as reported by CR Fashion Book:

"It wasn’t the wedding I dreamed of. It was so last minute."

But despite appearing to be happily married, the couple bore the brunt of numerous rumors alleging that each of them was engaged in same-sex relationships and their marriage was a sham. According to Entertainment Weekly, Crawford even poked fun at this, telling the press, "considering the number of women he’s [been] associated with, when does he have time to be gay?" 

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EW reports that the couple even took out an ad in the London Times to respond to accusations in a French newspaper that alleged Gere "preferred men." The $30,000 ad declared, "We are heterosexual and monogamous and take our commitment to each other very seriously." Meanwhile, Crawford was plagued with gay rumors herself after her now-iconic Vanity Fair cover shoot with musician K.D. Lang.

However, only four years after getting married the two would divorce, leaving many to wonder about the couple's age difference and whether it was a deciding factor in their split. Gere was 39 when he met a 22-year-old Cindy Crawford. Crawford later opened up to People about her marriage with Gere, explaining why she thinks it didn't work out, saying:

“I think part of the problem in our relationship was that we were a lot of other things, but I don’t know if we were ever friends — like peers, because I was young, and he was Richard Gere."

She went on to add that they didn't spend enough time together as a couple and getting to know each other, instead, convincing themselves they could jet in from other sides of the world to see each other. Ultimately, this type of long-distance relationship took its toll on their union. 

Sadly, the two don't appear to be very close anymore, as she said in the same interview:

“We’re friendly, but I think it’s almost like he’s gone back to being, like, ‘Richard Gere’ again, like a stranger, because we don’t really see each other that much.”   

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