Former supermodel Cindy Crawford believes that her marriage to Richard Gere did not last because of the 17-year age difference between them.
The stars met during a star-studded barbecue at the late photographer Herb Ritts' home.
The couple married when Crawford was 25 and Gere was 42 only to divorce in 1995 after four years of marriage, Us magazine reported.
"There were a lot of really cool people there. I was like, 'Wow! Jack Nicholson!' I was 21. It was still all new to me. I met Richard Gere there. We pretty much started dating right away. When I was with him, that's when I was becoming well-known as well," Crawford said during Oprah's Master Class.
"I just think your twenties, for women, is such a time when you're starting to come into your own and feel your own power and connect to your inner strength, and it's hard to do that -- it's hard to change -- in a relationship, because what one person might have signed up for, all of a sudden, you're not that anymore," the model said.
"I think I was more willing at 22 to be, like, 'Okay, I'll follow,' 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.'"
Crawford went on to marry restaurateur Rande Gerber in 1998. The couple raise-- son Presley, 13, and daughter Kaia, 11 while Gere married model and actress Carey Lowell in 2002.
Crawford says she looks back with great fondness to her marriage to Gere.
"Richard's a super smart guy, and he's interesting, and he's interested, and I learned a lot about the world. It was a great chapter in my life," she said.
