EXCLUSIVE: Anderson Cooper's Chilling Death Confession — CNN Host, 58, Admits He Spent His Entire Life Convinced He'd Die at 50 Years Old Like His Family Members
Anderson Cooper grew up traumatized he would die at 50 like his father and other male relatives.
Dec. 10 2025, Published 5:00 p.m. ET
Anderson Cooper has revealed he grew up terrified he would die at the age of 50, RadarOnline.com can report.
The CNN host, 58, appeared on Michelle Obama's podcast on Wednesday, December 10, to discuss grief. He shared his chilling family history where his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather all died at 50, and Cooper went through his whole life convinced he would meet the same early fate.
Tragic Family History
Cooper said he went thought his 'whole life' thinking he would die at 50 like his dad.
Cooper lost his beloved dad, Wyatt Emory Cooper, in 1978 when the newsman was only 10 years old.
Wyatt died due to complications while undergoing open-heart surgery in New York City, leaving his mom, Gloria Vanderbilt, a widow with two young sons.
"His dad died at 50, and his dad before that died at 50. I've gone through my whole life thinking I would die at 50," Anderson explained about his family tree on his dad's side.
"I'm 58 now, and I realize I had this crazy idea that a lot of people had that if you lose a parent early on, you're going to die at the age your parent died. Thankfully, there's advances in medicine," he noted about how he's outlived his ancestors on his dad's side of the family.
Cooper's dad wrote his memoir at the age of 48, fearing he might die young like his own father and grandfather.
Anderson shared how he realized, even before his dad's untimely death, that he might lose his father during his childhood.
"My dad wrote a book about two years before he died called Families, and it was a memoir about how he grew up kind of poor in Mississippi on a farm during the depression," the 60 Minutes correspondent explained.
"And it was about the life of families then, the family that he was born into. And the family that he created with my mom, my brother, and me. And it's really a letter to my brother and me that he wrote, knowing there was a good chance he would die," Anderson detailed about how his father likely had the same death fears about age 50 that he had.
Family Heartbreak
Cooper was extremely close to his heiress mom, Gloria Vanderbilt, who died at the age of 95.
While the veteran journalist lost his dad as a child, his mother lived to the age of 95, passing away in 2019 after a battle with stomach cancer.
The pair were extremely close, as they were the only family left after Anderson's brother, Carter Cooper, died by suicide after jumping off the 14th-floor terrace of his mom's New York City penthouse apartment in 1988. He was only 23 years old.
"Any time you lose a loved one, especially when you're younger, it alters the trajectory of your life," Anderson admitted in a 2021 interview about how deeply it affected him.
"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. 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."
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Anderson Cooper Talks Grief
Cooper openly sobbed during his 'All There Is' podcast when moved by a guest's words.
Anderson launched his grief podcast, All There Is With Anderson Cooper, in September 2022, where he openly speaks with guests about their losses as well as his own.
He was moved to tears by writer Megan Falley in a November episode, when she discussed recently losing her wife to cancer.
"You use the word ‘allegedly’ when you talk about Andrea’s death, which I kind of love," Anderson initially raved.
Falley then told him: "It felt so weird to talk with such certainty, to say 'Andrea died' as if any of us know what that means. We actually don’t know what it means. I don’t think. I had felt so many, sort of, signs and communications that it felt, it just didn't feel right, and it still doesn't to say 'Andrea died' so I love saying that Andrea allegedly died."
Anderson, who had to take off his glasses and wipe away tears, explained, "I’m crying because what you said is so unique and, I think, true. Yeah, we have no idea what this means."
