Forever in his memories. Anderson Cooper honored his late mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, in the sweetest way possible on the first anniversary of her death.
In an Instagram tribute posted on Wednesday, June 17, the 53-year-old CNN correspondent shared a heartfelt message alongside a photo of the artist sitting next to an easel.
“My mom, @gloriavanderbilt, died one year ago today. She is alive in my heart and in the hearts of all who knew her and loved her,” he captioned the image. “She 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.”
Cooper added, “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.”
The Anderson Cooper 360 host continued to celebrate his mother’s life by sharing multiple photos and videos of Vanderbilt to his Instagram Stories. In one upload, he posted a snap of the mother-son duo holding hands while she laid in a hospital bed. “In the end. When everything else is taken away. There is only love,” he wrote over the photo.
Vanderbilt died in June 2019 from stomach cancer. The fashion designer had been diagnosed with an advanced stage of the disease in the month of her death. She was 95.
Cooper confirmed the news in a video tribute that aired on CNN at the time, noting that she “died as she lived — on her own terms.” He eulogized her further, adding: “Gloria Vanderbilt was an extraordinary woman, who loved life, and lived it on her own terms. She was a painter, a writer and designer but also a remarkable mother, wife, and friend. She was 95 years old, but ask anyone close to her, and they’d tell you: She was the youngest person they knew — the coolest and most modern.”
Cooper announced the birth of his 1-month-old son, Wyatt, in April. Last month, he revealed that he informed Vanderbilt about his plans to become a father just before her passing.
“I was able to tell her shortly before she died that I was going to have a baby,” he explained on Live With Kelly and Ryan at the time. “I hadn’t actually — Wyatt hadn’t been created at that point. Wyatt wasn’t actually a being at that point. But he was an idea in my head and I was in the process of it.”
Cooper then shared how his infant’s middle name is connected to his mother, adding, “I’ve been going through my mom’s things because she passed away in June, and I found a list that she and my dad [Wyatt Emory Cooper] had handwritten out of possible names for me before I was born and one of them was Morgan. So, I knew that they liked the name. So yeah, I went with it.”
