Anderson Cooper Admits It's 'Hard' Knowing Mom Gloria Is Gone In Touching Tribute
Anderson Cooper honored his late mother in a touching tribute on his late night talk show on Thursday night, RadarOnline.com can report.
During the June 20 broadcast of Anderson Cooper 360, the CNN host paid his respects to his mother and fashion icon Gloria Vanderbilt, who died in the early morning hours of June 17 of an advanced form of stomach cancer.
According to Cooper, he learned of her diagnosis just days prior on June 8.
"She lived nine more days," he said. "Being able to spend those nine days and nights with her was a great, great blessing. They were the most extraordinary days of my life and I'm very grateful."
He continued, “Though I was holding her hand and her head when she took her last breath, it's still a little hard for me to believe she's gone."
The talk show host, 52, said that he misses his mother and is mourning, but finds peace in knowing he brought fulfillment to her and expressed to her how he felt.
"When I die that might be the thing I'm most proud of. I'm happy that we left nothing unsaid between us. She knew me and I knew her, and there's great comfort in that," he said on air. "'You and I, it's a match made in heaven,' she said to me last week. 'We're a good team,' I told her. We stayed up late that night just holding hands and when she got sleepy she said to me, 'What a wonderful night.' And it was."
Despite her popularity, Cooper explained that his late mother would have been overwhelmed by the loving messages following her death. He detailed the time she joined Instagram and was surprised at how many followers she’d acquired.
"She didn't think anyone would actually follow her," said Cooper. "'Why would anyone be interested?' she asked. It wasn't long before she had some 200,000 followers and it tickled her beyond belief."
As RadarOnline.com recently reported, the CNN host announced his mother’s passing on Monday. She was 95 at the time of her death.
“Gloria Vanderbilt was an extraordinary woman who loved life and lived it on her own terms. What an extraordinary life. What an extraordinary mom. What an incredible woman,” he said.
Cooper's friend Kathie Griffin was among the many people to pay her respects to Vanderbilt following her death but seemingly snubbed the news host by failing to mention him in her tribute.
“I lost a friend today. The one and only Gloria Vanderbilt. I loved her so much,” Griffin tweeted on Monday, June 17. “I would be so flattered when she would refer to me as her daughter. When we would have our alone time, we would sit on this sofa and talk for hours.”
RadarOnline.com readers know Cooper has also had to mourn the deaths of his father Wyatt Cooper and brother Carter Vanderbilt Cooper, who committed suicide after suffering from depression.