Anderson Cooper Once Warned Mother Gloria Vanderbilt About Dating a Married Man
Gloria Vanderbilt died Jan. 17, 2019 and Anderson Cooper is still still sorting out her estate. Nearly one year later, he’s setting the record straight about Vanderbilt’s assets and what he considers really important. Those would be her paintings, which she sold on Instagram, and her private journals.
Cooper appeared on The Howard Stern Show on May 12 and dutifully answered Stern’s questions pertaining to his mother. He shared the touching story of reading Vanderbilt’s journals and reliving tender moments from his childhood.
Anderson Cooper read Gloria Vanderbilt’s journals all his life
Vanderbilt’s personal journals are especially important to Cooper because they were vital to him growing up. He lamented he did not have more adult guidance in his life, so he’d read his mother’s journals for research.
“To be honest, I used to read her journals anyway when I was a kid because I wanted to know what was going on,” Cooper told Stern. “I wanted to see what was coming down the pike. It’s just fascinating. It’s incredible. I have all of them. It’s so amazing.”
Gloria Vanderbilt’s journals don’t surprise Anderon Cooper
Many people would probably love to read Vanderbilt’s private journals. They’d find out who she was dating, how she felt about them, etc. Cooper already knew all that so for him, the journals are just a matter of walking down memory lane.
“My mom wrote down a lot, a lot of relationship stuff,” Cooper said. “None of it was a surprise because my mom would tell me all this stuff in wildly inappropriate ways my entire life. I was advising her on most of these things that she was writing in her journal anyway.”
The journal that made Anderson Cooper feel like a good son
Cooper remembered one of Vanderbilt’s relationships from when he was a teenager. He already had enough foresight at that early age to offer her guidance.
“She had this long affair with this married guy. It was a lot about waiting for him to leave his wife which obviosuly wasn’t going to happen. It’s funny because I remember saying to my mom, I was 14 at that point, I was like ‘Mom, I can’t hear about this person anymore. You know he’s not going to leave his wife.’ She was like, ‘What do you mean?’ I was like, ‘You know he’s lying to you.’ It was all so obvious. I was like, ‘Dude, he’s just lying to you. You know this. It’s so basic and obvious.’”
Anderson Cooper, The Howard Stern Show, 5/12/2020
Cooper read Vanderbilt’s account of that incident and it made him feel good.
“She writes about it,” Cooper said. “She was like, ‘Anderson told me he’s been lying.’ It was such an obvious thing. It was so funny. It’s very funny when she writes about me in the journal. That, for me, of course because I’m egotistical, that was the most surprising thing because just to see how I was able to help her in her life in a positive way and she would write about it, things I’d totally forgotten. It made me feel I was a good son.”
Wyatt Emory Cooper’s journals are a little less eventful
Cooper has his father, Wyatt Emory Cooper’s journals too. They aren’t quite as descriptive as Vanderbilt’s.
“The flip side of that is my dad, who died when I was 10, I’ve also found some of his journals. The’yre more schedules of stuff but he wrote a book, because I think he had a good sense he was going to die. So he wrote this book called Families which is all about his family growing up in Mississippi and me and my brother and his hopes for us. It’s a lovely book and I think I knew it at the time but I realized it obviously after he died, it was really a letter to my brother and I. I read it twice a year. It’s a touchstone that has guided.”
Anderson Cooper, The Howard Stern Show, 5/12/2020
