The podcast recording confirms that Gerber made those remarks. It does not establish when the ritual took place, who conducted it or why anyone believed she was possessed. Neither Gerber nor Crawford has since clarified whether the event was a formal religious ceremony, an alternative wellness treatment or a childhood experience later described with comic exaggeration.
Social media accounts quickly repeated the story, but no independent confirmation or additional firsthand account has emerged. There is also no credible reporting that contradicts Gerber. The basic position, then, is unusually simple: she says it happened, while nearly every practical detail remains missing.
Why has the didgeridoo detail drawn criticism?
The instrument Gerber described is an Aboriginal Australian wind instrument associated particularly with northern Australia. It is also known by regional Indigenous names, including yiḏaki, although terminology and cultural practices differ among communities.
The Guardian has described the instrument as a major Aboriginal cultural symbol, while reporting that rules around ceremonial use vary by community. WNYC has also covered Australian cultural guidance encouraging non-Indigenous performers to seek permission from traditional custodians. Neither outlet identifies exorcism as a customary use.
Some Aboriginal and Australian commenters objected to the instrument being presented as an exotic supernatural prop. One self-identified Aboriginal commenter said she had never encountered it being used for an exorcism. Those reactions do not establish what happened to Gerber, but they do highlight the problem with leaving the ritual culturally unidentified.
Didgeridoos are sometimes used by non-Indigenous practitioners in commercial sound-healing sessions. That offers one possible context, but Gerber has not said whether her experience belonged to that world. Without further explanation, calling it an exorcism creates more questions than it answers, which is efficient publicity if not especially useful history.
Why did Cindy Crawford send holy water to a TV set?
Whatever the childhood event involved, Crawford apparently remained alert to the possibility of a sequel. When Gerber joined season 10 of American Horror Story, her mother gave her holy water to take to the set.
“My mom gave me holy water to go to set,” Gerber recalled. “She was like, ‘I don’t want you to get possessed.’”
It is unclear whether Crawford was seriously concerned or continuing a family joke. Gerber presented the story lightly, just as she did the earlier ritual. At minimum, supernatural risk management appears to have had a place alongside more ordinary parental advice.
Crawford and Rande Gerber also share son Presley Gerber, 27. Kaia Gerber has since moved further from runway work into acting, with roles in Palm Royale, American Horror Story and FX’s The Shards.
How does the story fit Gerber’s acting career?
The remarks arrived during publicity for The Shards, which premiered August 5. Adapted from Bret Easton Ellis’s 2023 novel, the series follows privileged Los Angeles teenagers living through a serial-killer panic. Gerber told Vogue at the premiere that acting had been her ambition “since I was a baby” and called the production one of her best professional experiences.
She has also spoken plainly about the advantage of having famous parents.
“I’ve only ever been a nepo baby, and I’ve only ever benefited in my career from it,” Gerber told Vogue in an interview published August 11. She admitted that she applies similar scrutiny to other well-connected performers, asking them to show why they deserve the job.
Gerber offered that advice to The Shards co-star Homer Gere, whose father, Richard Gere, was married to Crawford from 1991 to 1995. She warned Homer that audiences would not assess him like an unknown actor and said the same pressure had made her work harder.
That career discussion is considerably easier to verify than the childhood possession story. For now, Gerber has supplied the headline, the instrument and the happy ending. The rest remains somewhere beyond this dimension, or simply off the record.
