Does Anderson Cooper have any siblings? What we know about the family as CNN anchor hosts New Year's Eve

On Tuesday, December 31, Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen returned as co-hosts of CNN's New Year's Eve Live.

Cooper and Cohen were posted up in New York City's Times Square with a view of the ball drop at midnight. Over 50 guest appearances were anticipated throughout the event, including 50 Cent, Meghan Trainor, Shania Twain, and Sasheer Zamata, among others.

Anderson Cooper has 3 siblings, one brother, and two half-brothers all of whom were born before him. Cooper's eldest brother is the 74-year-old Leopold Stanislaus Stokowski, followed by the 72-year-old Christopher Stokowski. Meanwhile, Carter Vanderbilt Cooper was two years older than him but passed away in 1988.

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Anderson Cooper's brother, Carter, died by suicide at 23

Carter Cooper was the only sibling of Anderson Cooper, born to artist Gloria Vanderbilt and writer Wyatt Cooper. As per an Oldest.org article, Carter committed suicide when he was 23.

On the morning of July 22, 1988 (the day of his death), Carter arrived at his mother's apartment, telling her he had just broken up with his girlfriend and was planning to move back home, then proceeding to take a nap.

Upon waking up, Carter appeared to be in a confused state, asking Gloria "What's going on?" several times, before jumping out the window of the 14th-floor apartment. After Cooper's death, it was found that he was seeing a therapist, who appeared shocked by the news of his suicide.

In an interview with People magazine (published on September 16, 2021), Anderson Cooper revealed that he was still affected by his brother's suicide, calling it a "devastating loss." The CNN journalist told People:

"Any time you lose a loved one, especially when you're younger, it alters the trajectory of your life... It's inconceivable to me that my brother died in 1988 and I've lived more of my life without him than I have with him."

Cooper continued:

"There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about what he would be doing, who he would be, and I still think about his death and have questions about it."

Anderson Cooper went on to say that his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, felt the same way about Carter's death, adding:

"Till the day she died (in 2019), we were both still stunned by what happened. There are some things that never can be answered and you have to find a way to live in that space of not knowing, or not fully understanding."

Leopold, Anderson's oldest brother, has a landscaping business. Leopold has married twice and has two daughters from his first marriage (with Ivy Strick) and a son from his second marriage (with Emily Goldstein).

Meanwhile, Christopher Stokowski's relationship with their mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, soured after he started consulting her therapist. There, he found out that it was Gloria who tried to end Christopher's relationship with his ex-fiancee, April Sandmayer, which resulted in April calling the engagement off.

Christopher couldn't forgive his mother for it and cut all ties with his family after that. In 2016, he got back in contact with his mother, who died three years later.

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In June 2020, Anderson Cooper wrote a heartfelt tribute to her mother on her first death anniversary, stating:

"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."

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In 2016, before the death of Anderson Cooper's mother, Gloria also co-authored a book with her son, titled The Rainbow Comes and Goes: A Mother and Son Talk About Life, Love, and Loss. The book contains a collection of emails exchanged between the mother-son duo.