Anderson Hays Cooper was born on June 3, 1967, in Manhattan, New York City. He is the son of writer Wyatt Emory Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt, the late artist, fashion designer, and heiress. His maternal grandfather was Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt, a millionaire equestrian, and his maternal grandmother was socialite Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt.
Raised in a high-profile family, Cooper was exposed to media from an early age. As an infant, he appeared in Harper’s Bazaar with his mother, and at age three, he was a guest on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Between ages 10 and 13, he modeled for brands such as Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, and Macy’s.
Cooper experienced profound personal loss during his youth. His father died from heart failure during open-heart surgery on January 5, 1978, when Cooper was 10. A decade later, his older brother, Carter Vanderbilt Cooper, died by suicide at age 23. These tragedies deeply shaped Cooper’s worldview and motivated him to pursue journalism. Reflecting on that time, Cooper once said, “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.”
Cooper frequently acknowledges the guidance of his father's writing. "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—a guide on how he would have wanted me to live.” His mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, remarked, “Those are the two events that affected him at a gut level... When he became a reporter, it enabled him to work with compassion and maturity beyond his years."
Cooper attended the Dalton School, a prestigious private institution in New York City. He graduated early at 17 and spent several months in Africa, an experience that highlighted his adventurous spirit. “He wanted to go, and I let him,” his mother later said. “I knew it was in his nature to take risks.”
After returning, Cooper enrolled at Yale University, majoring in political science. He interned for two summers at the Central Intelligence Agency and earned his bachelor's degree in 1989.
Breaking into broadcast journalism proved challenging. While working as a fact-checker for Channel One, a news program broadcast in schools, Cooper forged a press pass to enter Myanmar and report on pro-democracy protests. He later studied Vietnamese at the University of Hanoi and produced segments from Vietnam for Channel One. His reporting expanded to cover conflict areas like Somalia, Bosnia, and Rwanda, with his stories reaching more than 12,000 U.S. classrooms.
In 1995, Cooper joined ABC News as a correspondent. His roles included co-anchoring World News Now, hosting the reality show The Mole, and occasionally substituting for Regis Philbin on Live with Regis and Kelly.
In 2001, Cooper transitioned to CNN, returning to hard news following the September 11 attacks. He initially co-anchored American Morning with Paula Zahn and soon became CNN’s weekend prime-time anchor. Starting in 2002, he began co-hosting CNN’s annual New Year's Eve coverage from Times Square.
| Birth Date: | 3 Jun, 1967 |
| Age: | 52 yrs |
| Occupations: | Journalist Model Television presenter Writer |
| Citizenship: | United States of America |
| Birth Place: | New York City |
| residence: | New York Vietnam |
| Gender: | Male |
| Description: | American journalist, television presenter and author |
| Twitter Id: | Andersoncooper |
| Net Worth 2021: | 200 million |
