Anderson Cooper married, salary, net worth, affair, nationality, reporter

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Beginnings and Family

<a href="/biography/anderson-cooper">Anderson Hays Cooper</a> was born June 3, 1967 in Manhattan, New York City. His parents are <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyatt_Emory_Cooper">writer</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyatt_Emory_Cooper">Wyatt Emory Cooper</a> and artist, fashion designer, writer, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_Morgan_Vanderbilt">heiress</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_Morgan_Vanderbilt">Gloria Vanderbilt</a>. His grandparents were millionaire equestrian <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reginald_Claypoole_Vanderbilt">Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_Morgan_Vanderbilt">socialite</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_Morgan_Vanderbilt">Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt</a>.

Given his high-brow family, Anderson was exposed to media at an early age. He appeared in Harper’s Bazaar when he was a <a href="/biography/anderson-cooper">baby</a>. At 3 years old, on September 17, 1970, he appeared as a guest on The Tonight Show with his mother. From age 10 through 13, Cooper modeled for Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, and Macy's.

Cooper was only 10 years old when his father suffered a series of heart attacks and ultimately died while undergoing open-heart surgery on January 5, 1978. Ten years later, Cooper's older brother, Carter Vanderbilt Cooper, committed suicide by jumping from his penthouse apartment on July 22, 1988 at age 23. Cooper cites his brother's untimely death as one of the reasons he became interested in journalism. "I'd come to be a reporter. At least that was the excuse. The only thing I really knew is that I was hurting and needed to go someplace where the pain outside matched the pain I was feeling inside." He also credits much of his success to his father. "I reread his book, Families, probably once a year", he told New York Magazine. "To me it's sort of a letter from him to me and sort of a guide on... you know, how he would have wanted me to live my life and the choices he would have wanted me to make. So I feel very connected to him."

"[Those] are the two events that affected him at gut level", his mother remembers. "Later, when he became a reporter, it enabled him to do this with compassion and maturity way beyond his years. I've always thought that TV is like an X-ray. And when you see Anderson on TV, what you see is what you get. He really is like that."

Education and Early Career

Cooper studied at Dalton School, a private co-ed university preparatory day school in New York City. He graduated a semester early, at 17, and then traveled Africa for several months before returning to attend Yale University. "He wanted to go and I let him", his mother reports. "I knew it was in his nature to take risks, live on the edge."

While at Yale, he spent two summers interning at the Central Intelligence Agency. He majored in political science and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in 1989.

After graduating, Cooper attempted to gain entry-level positions with ABC answering telephones, but had difficulties transitioning to on-air reporting. While working for Channel One as a fact checker, Cooper forged a press pass to enter Myanmar and interview students that were fighting the Burmese government. He then sold these reports to Channel One. While in Burma, Cooper lived in Vietnam for a year to study the language at the University of Hanoi. After his previous success, he persuaded Channel one to allow him to film and assemble reports of Vietnamese life, which then aired on the network. He continued filming similar stories from Somalia, Bosnia, and Rwanda. His stories were seen by over 12,000 classrooms all over the nation when they were broadcast on the school television network of Channel One News.

In 1995, Cooper was hired by ABC News as a correspondent. He moved within the company, co-anchoring World News Now and later hosting the channel's reality show, The Mole. He occasionally filled in for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regis_Philbin">Regis Philbin</a> on Live with Regis and Kelly and often co-hosted with the duo.

Career

Cooper left ABC and joined CNN in 2001, returning to broadcast news and leaving his position on The Mole. "Two seasons was enough", he explained. "And 9/11 happened, and I thought I needed to be getting back to news." He anchored alongside <a href="/biography/paula-zahn">Paula Zahn</a> on American Morning and, less than a year later, became CNN's prime-time weekend anchor. Since 2002 he has hosted CNN's New Year's Eve special from Times Square.

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On September 8, 2003, Cooper created his own CNN show, Anderson Cooper 360. He has since covered many important stories including: tsunami damage in Sri Lanka, Cedar Revolution in Beirut, death of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_John_Paul_II">Pope John Paul II</a>, and Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina boosted Cooper's following immensely due to his "impassioned" coverage of the storm. "I would prefer not to be emotional and I would prefer not to get upset", he explained. "But it's hard not to when you're surrounded by brave people who are suffering and in need." In one particular fit of passion, he spoke candidly on-camera with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Landrieu">Mary Landrieu</a>, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Landrieu">senator</a> from Louisiana, who was evading his tough questions about the hurricane. During the next segment, he was shown crying and emotional alongside a tattered American Flag. The viewership applauded and related with him, and Anderson Cooper 360 viewership increased 400 percent.

"I think viewers are so tired of cookie-cuttor anchors with perfect diction and haircuts that there's a growing market for television journalists who seem like real human beings, and Anderson Cooper is in that mold", Washington Post <a href="/biography/howard-kurtz">media critic</a> <a href="/biography/howard-kurtz">Howard Kurtz</a> explains. Cooper's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Klein_(CNN)">boss</a> at CNN, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Klein_(CNN)">Jonathan Klein</a>, agrees. "He brings a new dimension to the job, which is a concept of an anchor as a kind of missionary."

In May 2006, Cooper published Dispatches from the Edge, a memoir detailing his work in Sri Lanka, Africa, Iraq, and Louisiana. It topped the New York Times Best Seller list on June 18, 2006 and donated much of its proceeds to charity. He would later publish The Rainbow Comes and Goes: A Mother and Son on Life, Love, and Loss with his mother, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_Morgan_Vanderbilt">Gloria Vanderbilt</a>, in 2016. It debuted at the top of the New York Times Best-Sellers list and remained there for three months.

In 2007, Cooper signed a multi-year deal with CNN that doubled his salary and secured him a contributing position on 60 Minutes. He also began hosting CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute and Planet in Peril that same year. Although the daytime talk show Anderson was cancelled in 2013, Anderson Cooper 360 continues.

In 2016, Cooper moderated the second presidential debate between <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Clinton">Hillary Clinton</a> and <a href="/biography/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a>. He thus became the first openly gay person to moderate a presidential debate.

Awards

Anderson Cooper 360 has brought in many accolades including Emmy Awards, DuPont Awards, Peabody Awards, National Headliners Awards, and GLAAD Awards. While he was at ABC, Cooper was honored with an Emmy for his reporting on the funeral of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana,_Princess_of_Wales">Princess Diana</a>. He also received a Silver Plaque at the Chicago International Film Festival for reporting on the Bosnian Civil War.

He helped CNN earn a Peabody Award for his coverage of Hurricane Katrina and a DuPont award following the 2004 tsunami. Ultimately, Cooper has been awarded sixteen Emmy Awards and an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_R._Murrow">Edward R. Murrow</a> award.

Personal Life

Cooper is openly gay, and according to the New York Times, "is the most prominent openly gay journalist on American television." For several years he avoided discussing his personal life. "You know, I understand why people might be interested. But I just don't talk about my personal life", he tells New York Magazine. "It's a decision I made a long time ago, before I ever even know anyone would be interested in my personal life. The whole thing about being a reported is that you're supposed to be an observer and to be able to adapt with any group you're in, and I don't want to do anything that threatens that." Ultimately, Cooper allowed the following to be published on July 2, 2012: "The fact is, I'm gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn't be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud."

Cooper dated Benjamin Maisani, a nightclub mogul, for quite some time, before announcing the end of the relationship in March of 2018. "Benjamin and I separated as boyfriends some time ago", he told PEOPLE magazine. "We are still family to each other and love each other very much. We remain the best of friends and will continue to share much of our lives together."

When asked how he balances life on-air and off-air, Cooper responded "I don't really have a life off-air. It all blends together."

Cooper's Facebook, @andersoncooper, has over 890,000 followers. His Twitter, @andersoncooper, has over 10 million followers. His Instagram, @andersoncooper, has more than 1.6 million followers.

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