Anderson Cooper Pens Heartfelt Tribute to Mom Gloria Vanderbilt One Year After Her Death
Anderson Cooper took to Instagram on Wednesday to pay tribute to his late mother Gloria Vanderbilt.
"My mom, @gloriavanderbilt, died one year ago today," the CNN anchor began. "She is alive in my heart and in the hearts of all who knew her and loved her."
Cooper went on to write about how his mom "had an extraordinary and indomitable spirit, grit, determination, passion, and vulnerability."
"She experienced great love and horrific tragedies, but she never lost her almost childlike optimism; her openness to the world around her," he continued. "She chose to remain vulnerable. Others would have closed off their hearts, protected themselves. My mom wanted to see and hear and feel everything....and that is exactly what she did. Bravo, Mom, Bravo."
He also posted an old photograph of her sitting at an easel and shared memories of his mother via Instagram Stories.
"She lived an epic life as a wife, a mom, a lover, an actress, a designer, a writer and an artist," he wrote. "When she was told she was going to die in a matter of days, she said, 'Well, it's like that old song says, 'Show me the way to get out of this world, because that's where everything is.'"
Celebrity Deaths: 2020's Fallen Stars
Cooper then recalled how "minutes later, she said something funny, and we both started giggling."
"That's when I discovered where my silly giggle comes from," he wrote alongside old footage of them laughing. "It was her giggle all along."
He concluded by writing, "In the end. When everything else is taken away. There is only love."
Vanderbilt passed away in June 2019 after a battle with stomach cancer. She was 95 years old.
Cooper remembered his late family members—including Vanderbilt, his father Wyatt Emory Cooper and his brother Carter Vanderbilt Cooper—upon announcing the birth of his son Wyatt Morgan Cooper.
"I do wish my mom and dad and my brother, Carter, were alive to meet Wyatt, but I like to believe they can see him," the journalist, who welcomed the child via surrogate in April, wrote via Instagram at the time. "I imagine them all together, arms around each other, smiling and laughing, happy to know that their love is alive in me and in Wyatt, and that our family continues."
During a recent interview with People, the Anderson Cooper 360 host recalled how his mother "was thrilled" when he told her he was going to be a dad. He also spoke about how her death helped him determine he was ready to become a father.
"When Mom died, she was 95, and she'd talked about her death for pretty much as long as I can remember, so I was ready for it. But I wasn't prepared for the realization that I don't really have any immediate family left," he told the magazine, then adding, "It was a very lonely feeling that I hadn't really anticipated. "It made me think, 'Well, all right, this is definitely meant to be.'"
