Anderson Cooper's inheritance from mom Gloria Vanderbilt is much less than expected

Anderson Cooper is inheriting the bulk of his late mother, Gloria Vanderbilt's, fortune, but the monetary total of his inheritance is reportedly much less than estimates had predicted.

Last week, documents showed that Vanderbilt was leaving her lavish Midtown apartment to her oldest son, Leopold "Stan" Stokowski, and "all the rest" of her fortune to Cooper. (Her estranged middle son, Chris Stokowski, who cut himself off from the family 40 years ago, will reportedly get nothing.) That being said, it was unclear how much Vanderbilt, who died at the age of 95 on June 17, was actually leaving behind.

SEE ALSO: Anderson Cooper to receive the bulk of his mother Gloria Vanderbilt's fortune

Despite the fact that Vanderbilt was estimated to be worth $200 million, she's actually leaving behind less than $1.5 million , which Page Six reports was the total value of her estate when she passed away following a short battle with an advanced form of stomach cancer.

The outlet quoted a legal expert who called the unexpected development "notable" amid back-and-forth speculation around what would happen to Vanderbilt's estate.

"It is noteworthy that Gloria didn’t leave hardly anything to Anderson, when it was assumed he would get most of her estate," New York City lawyer Herbert E. Nass explained. "Her eldest son inherited her biggest asset, her apartment, and there does not appear to be much else left, according to the probate document."

It's unclear exactly how Vanderbilt spent the bulk of her fortune, but the railroad heiress had a series of legal and business woes over the last several decades of her life that likely affected her finances negatively.

SEE ALSO: Inside Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt's unconventional mother-son relationship

Though the value of Vanderbilt's estate comes as a bit of a surprise, Cooper likely couldn't care less, as he wasn't expecting to inherit anything at all from his iconic mother. In a 2014 interview with Howard Stern, the CNN anchor explained why he doesn't "believe in inheriting money."

"My mom’s made clear to me that there’s no trust fund. There’s none of that," he said five years ago. "I don’t believe in inheriting money . . . I think it’s a curse . . . From the time I was growing up, if I felt like there was some pot of gold waiting for me, I don’t know if I would have been so motivated."

Cooper was the first to report his mother's passing last month in an emotional tribute that aired on CNN.

"Her private self, her real self -- that was more fascinating and more lovely than anything she showed the public," Cooper said in the segment. "I always thought of her as a visitor from another world, a traveler stranded here who’d come from a distant star that’d burned out long ago. I always felt it was my job to protect her."

“What an extraordinary life. What an extraordinary mom. And what an incredible woman," he concluded.