George Clooney Stayed Close to Presley Gerber — Inside the Advice and Support He Gave Him

George Clooney knew Presley Gerber when the biggest things connecting their families were vacations, dinners, and the friendship between their fathers. Years later, those easy family memories reportedly gave way to much more serious conversations behind closed doors.

At first, George was willing to tell Presley directly when he thought he was making a mistake. Much later, after Presley had begun speaking openly about mental health and treatment, the message George gave him was no longer advice at all.

He Was Already Part of Presley’s World

George’s connection to Presley began through Rande Gerber, whom he met more than 20 years before Rande recalled their first meeting in 2016. George was shooting a movie in New York when he walked into a bar Rande owned, and the 2 struck up a friendship over tequila.

By the time Presley and Kaia were growing up, Clooney was already a familiar adult in the family’s circle. George and Rande vacationed together, eventually became business partners with Mike Meldman, and brought their families into many of the same gatherings.

The connection extended beyond occasional holidays. The Gerbers and Clooneys once had adjoining vacation properties in Los Cabos, while Cindy and Rande were later reportedly linked to an apartment in the same New York City building as George and Amal, according to an account of the families’ closeness.

When George and Amal welcomed twins Ella and Alexander in 2017, Presley and Kaia were already teenagers. Rande joked that the siblings would make “perfect babysitters” and said the families planned to “spend a lot of time together.”

Presley was 17 then and beginning to establish himself in modeling. Around that period, he also spoke more seriously about how reassuring it was to have the people closest to him nearby.

“My whole family’s so supportive of me. It’s just so comforting to have them here. It’s making everything a lot easier,” Presley said in an earlier interview.

George’s relationship with him apparently went beyond simply being friendly with Rande’s children. Presley was later described as a “second son” to Clooney, while their bond was described in strikingly personal terms: “They were close. Presley was more than just a friend’s kid; they had a bond.”

One Night Brought a Blunt Warning

Presley was 19 when police stopped him shortly before 4 a.m. on December 30, 2018, after he was reportedly seen speeding in Beverly Hills. He failed a field sobriety test and was arrested on suspicion of DUI.

His representative said Presley had no previous criminal record and “takes this very seriously.” According to an account of the arrest, the incident suddenly put the young model into a very different kind of headline from those surrounding his early career.

Presley eventually pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor count involving a blood-alcohol level. He received 3 years of probation, a DUI program, and 2 days of community service under the plea agreement.

George spoke to Presley afterward. “Don’t do that, it’s not smart. Be careful,” he reportedly told him.

The conversation was direct and brief, but it was not the end of George’s contact with Presley. Years later, the 2 were reportedly still talking as Presley began revealing far more about what he had been dealing with.

George also had his own memories of being young and making questionable decisions. But unlike Presley, many of Clooney’s mistakes came before the level of fame that made private missteps instantly public.

George Had His Own Wild Years

Presley entered adulthood with a famous last name, a modeling career already attracting attention, and little separation between a private mistake and a public headline. George had experienced a very different version of being young and reckless.

Clooney did not become widely known until years after some of his own wilder days. In a candid 2025 interview, he looked back on his early years in Los Angeles and acknowledged experimenting with cocaine.

“I did blow and stuff,” George said. He immediately qualified his experience, adding, “The truth is, it was never a big issue for me at all.”

George did not describe himself as having battled addiction. He recalled cocaine being treated differently in some social circles in the early 1980s and spoke more broadly about foolish decisions he had made while young.

He said many of his “dumb things” happened when virtually nobody knew who he was. By the time the public was watching his every move, many of those years were already behind him.

Presley did not have that same anonymity. His mother was one of the world’s best-known supermodels, his sister was building her own career, and Presley himself entered fashion while still a teenager.

George’s stories about his youth surfaced publicly much later, after he had decades of distance from them. Presley, meanwhile, began talking about his own difficult experiences while he was still working through them.

And what he eventually shared went far beyond one bad decision at 19. Mental health became a subject Presley returned to again and again in his own words.

Presley Began Saying What Families Usually Keep Private

During a 2023 podcast appearance, Presley described mental health as “such a big part of my life” and called dealing with it a “24/7 job.” He spoke about depression and other difficulties without pretending they were small parts of his life.

He also explained why he wanted to be open about what he had experienced. Presley said that whether he helped 1 person or 100 people get out of a place he himself had once been in, that would be enough for him.

He hoped other people might even avoid some of the mistakes he had already made. In the same conversation, Presley said he had seen and learned a lot and wanted others to benefit from those experiences.

His openness continued on social media. Presley launched “Mental Health Mondays,” a series focused on recovery, emotional well-being, and conversations people often avoided having.

In November 2025, however, Presley told followers he had temporarily pulled away from social media to focus on himself. “I had to step back and take care of my own mental health for a bit,” he wrote.

When he returned to the subject, he said his original goal with “Mental Health Mondays” had been to “spark real conversations about the stuff most people hide.” He said he was proud that something he created had encouraged greater openness.

Presley’s public conversations grew increasingly personal. He talked about treatment, fear, and periods when he was still searching for help rather than speaking only after everything had been resolved.

And while Presley was talking publicly, George was reportedly still part of the much quieter support happening away from social media.

George Was Still There When Things Got Hard

“George would spend hours talking to Presley. George is the nicest guy in the world and would do anything to help Rande’s family,” was how their relationship was described.

Presley had already said that his mental health required attention around the clock. He had spoken about feeling alone, looking for help, and trying different forms of treatment.

Months before his death, another post showed how difficult that process could be. Before undergoing treatment in Mexico, Presley admitted that he had been “absolutely terrified.”

He went through with the treatment and later wrote that he had begun finding his way back to himself. Presley also said he was praying it would be the last time he needed to return for treatment.

During that period, George remained in contact. Their relationship had moved far beyond the family gatherings of Presley’s childhood and into conversations that could reportedly last for hours.

Presley’s family was also feeling the effects of what he was going through. Kaia later spoke openly about how her brother’s struggles had shaped her own behavior inside the family.

By then, George had already tried giving Presley a direct warning years earlier. What came later was no longer another instruction about what Presley should do.

Then Came the 5 Words Presley Needed to Hear

Presley had spent years talking publicly about mental health, treatment, addiction, and the fear that sometimes came with trying to get better. George had reportedly continued speaking with him through those later years.

At some point, Clooney told Presley, “I am here for you.” There was no new warning in those words and no direction about what Presley should do next.

George was simply making clear that he remained there for the young man he had known since childhood. It was a very different message from the one he had given Presley years earlier.

Presley continued trying to use his own experience to reach other people. He had said that helping even 1 person avoid the place he had once found himself in would be enough.

The people around him were also continuing to offer support in different ways. Cindy and Rande encouraged him publicly, while George’s role appeared through the long conversations he reportedly kept having with Presley.

That remained the picture until September 2026, when the same circle of people who had watched Presley grow up suddenly gathered for a very different reason.

The Next Visit Was for the Family

Presley died on September 20, 2026, at age 27 while staying at a rehabilitation facility. Cindy, Rande, Kaia, and the people closest to the family gathered in Los Angeles in the days that followed.

Two days later, George and Amal Clooney were photographed arriving at Kaia Gerber’s home. They went to be with the Gerbers as the family faced Presley’s loss.

George had once been part of the lighter years, when Presley and Kaia were children and Rande could joke about them someday babysitting the Clooney twins. No one in those years could have imagined that the same families would eventually come together after losing one of the children they had watched grow up.

George had seen Presley as a boy, watched him begin his own career, and later reportedly spent hours talking with him as those harder years unfolded. The young man described as something like a “second son” to him was now gone.

The story had begun with simple family memories: trips, dinners, children growing older, and jokes about future babysitting. Later came a blunt warning, years of far more difficult conversations, and finally the reassurance that George was still there.

No one in those earlier years could have imagined that George and Rande would one day share not only the memories of watching Presley grow up, but the loss of him too.