Kathy Griffin says her friendship with Anderson Cooper is over
Anderson Cooper recently claimed that he’s “still friends” with Kathy Griffin following her controversial Trump photo shoot. She disagrees.
In a new interview with the Cut, the famed comedian, who caused a stir by posing with a bloodied rendition of President Trump’s severed head, made it clear that her friendship with her former co-host of CNN’s New Year’s Eve Live is dunzo after he spoke out against her in the wake of the scandal. That goes against his July 26 comments on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen in which he said, “Yeah, we’re still friends … I hope she bounces back.”
To recap, after Griffin’s photos hit the web in late May and caused a frenzy, Cooper, her friend of 17 years, tweeted that he was “appalled” and called the photo shoot “clearly disgusting” and “completely inappropriate” — without contacting her personally. Of course, Griffin was fired by CNN right after the incident. She said in the interview that while four of Cooper’s CNN colleagues reached out to her to offer support, Cooper did not. And during her press conference to address the drama in the days following, Griffin was asked if she had heard from Cooper. She just cried and shook her head in silence.
For the record, I am appalled by the photo shoot Kathy Griffin took part in. It is clearly disgusting and completely inappropriate.
— Anderson Cooper (@andersoncooper) May 31, 2017
Fast-forward to July when Cooper appeared on WWHL. Cohen asked about the drama and Cooper replied, “Yeah, we’re still friends, and look, I said what I said about — I didn’t think what she said was appropriate, but I wish her the best and I hope she bounces back.”
Griffin told the Cut, however, that Cooper still hadn’t reached out to her at that point. In fact, she didn’t hear from him until Aug. 10 — over two months after the scandal. By then, she wasn’t interested in his support.
According to the article, “Griffin acknowledges that Cooper was in an untenable position, but she feels that their long friendship afforded her a call or text message beforehand.” And “The fact that Cooper was telling people publicly they were friends, while not checking in with her, hurt Griffin deeply. When he finally reached out to her in a series of text messages, she told him their friendship was over.”
A Cooper source said that while he hadn’t reached out to Griffin — because he was “shocked and upset by the photo” and “not ready to talk to her personally about it” — he “still considered her to be a friend.”
Griffin, who’s ready to get back into the public eye and is readying for an international tour later this year, said that some of her other famous friends were much more supportive. Jerry Seinfeld and Jamie Foxx publicly supported her. Amy Schumer sent her a private funny video. And lots was done behind the scenes. She said that a famous couple who lives in her gated community, but whom she had never met, dropped off a cake and a kind note.
On Sunday, Griffin deleted all the content on her Instagram (like Taylor Swift) — including her infamous video apology for the Trump pix — to announce her Laugh Your Head Off world tour.
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