Here's Why Richard Gere And Cindy Crawford Really Got Divorced

Richard Gere and Cindy Crawford were the it couple of the '90s. The pair met in 1988 at a backyard barbecue hosted by celebrity photographer Herb Ritts. At the time, Crawford, 22, was already a supermodel on the rise, while Gere, 39, had likewise cemented his status as a Hollywood A-lister. 

Despite their massive age gap of almost 20 years, Gere and Crawford had an instant connection and were soon an item. They had been dating for several years when they spontaneously tied the knot in Vegas in 1991, exchanging aluminum-foil rings in front of a small group of friends followed by a dinner at Denny's, per Entertainment Weekly.

"I was a Midwest girl who had watched a lot of movies and I dreamed of getting married in this big fairytale wedding," Crawford told The Telegraph in 2015. "We had been dating a couple years and I kept asking when we could get married and finally he was like, 'Okay we're going to Vegas tonight." "Richard was trying to give me what I wanted," she added. "I wore an Armani suit but I didn't dream of getting married in a navy suit. And I didn't even have a blowout!" Sadly, the marital bliss was short-lived as she and Gere ended up separating in 1994. A joint statement from the power couple described the decision as "personal and painful." So what exactly led to their downfall? In Crawford's own words, here's the reason why she and Gere couldn't work things out in their marriage. 

Several factors played into Richard Gere and Cindy Crawford's decision to end their marriage. In an interview fresh from their divorce in 1995, Crawford blamed their busy schedules and the long distance as to why she and Gere couldn't make things work. She told People, "We didn't spend enough time together. And we're equally responsible for that. We thought it would be okay if we just flew in from Paris to L.A. to get together for a night to see each other. It wasn't."

Then, there was the age gap. Reflecting on their marriage on Marc Maron's "WTF" podcast, the supermodel — who married Gere when she was 26, and he 42 — cited the massive age difference between her and the actor as another reason for their breakup. "I was young," said Crawford, according to Today. "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 echoed the same sentiment on "Oprah's Master Class" in 2013, saying she refused to walk in her ex-husband's shadow. "I think I was more willing at 22 to be, like, 'Okay, I'll follow,'" she said, per The Daily Mail. "But 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.'" 

On Marc Maron's "WTF" podcast, Cindy Crawford opened up about her relationship with Richard Gere 20 after years after the pair pulled the plug on their whirlwind marriage. According to Today, she said, "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." 

Since divorcing Gere, Crawford has remarried and started her own family with husband Rande Gerber. The couple wed in 1988 and are proud parents to two kids, models Kaia and Presley. Meanwhile, Gere married actor Carey Lowell in 2002; they welcomed a son, Homer James, before splitting in 2016. Currently, the actor is married to Alejandra Silva, with whom he shares a significant 33-year age difference. The couple has welcomed two children, son Alexander and another baby boy in 2020. 

Despite not being friends with Gere, Crawford has insisted that she harbors no ill feelings towards her ex, even crediting the "Pretty Woman" actor for teaching her the ropes on how to navigate her then-newfound fame. She's also expressed her admiration towards Gere, describing the star as a "super smart guy," per The Daily Mail. "He's interesting, and he's interested, and I learned a lot about the world," she said, before finally adding of their short-lived marriage: "It was a great chapter in my life."