Anderson Cooper pays heartbreaking tribute to late brother

Anderson Cooper has marked the 35th anniversary of his brother’s death. Penning a heartbreaking tribute to his late sibling, Carter, the CNN star posted several black-and-white photos from their early childhood together. The caption read: “It is 35 years today since my brother, Carter Cooper, died. I think of him, and miss him, every day.” 

Carter passed away on July 22 1988 from suicide at the age of 23. 

Shortly after posting the tribute, Anderson was inundated with condolences and well-wishes from fans. “Those we love deeply and lose are imprinted forever on our broken hearts. Sending you love,” replied one. 

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“Anderson, I’ve never had the privilege of seeing you in person, much less call you a friend. But if I were with you right now, I’d give you a tight hug. From my little corner of the world, I send you love and serenity, commented a second. 

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Meanwhile, a third penned “He is right by your side all the time Anderson. Angels all around,” and a fourth added: “Beautiful brothers. Our hearts are with you.”

Anderson, 56, has spoken about the loss of his brother on numerous occasions. Tragically, Carter had jumped to his death from their family’s 14th-floor penthouse apartment in front of their mother, Gloria Vanderbilt. 

Reflecting on Carter’s death in a 2022 interview with his friend and colleague Christiane Amanpour, Anderson admitted that the incident had continued to haunt his mother Gloria until the day she died. 

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“She relived it constantly. She replayed it in her head every single day of her life for the rest of her life,” he said. 

“My mom, until the day she died, she would out of the blue say to me, ‘Maybe if I had grabbed an iron from the fireplace and hit Carter, it would have knocked him out, and maybe that would have stopped him. I could have stopped him from going to the balcony,'” he explained. 

“She could never get to a place where she could accept the death, but she got to a place where she could continue to live.”

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Anderson has also confessed that he continues to struggle with it. “Any time you lose a loved one, especially when you’re younger, it alters the trajectory of your life,” he told PEOPLE in 2021. 

“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,” he said.

Following Carter’s death, Anderson went on to launch his own podcast about grief and loss, titled ‘All There Is’. After launching in September 2022, listeners have continued to commend and thank Anderson for his honesty, with many crediting the star for having helped them come to terms with their own grief.