Rumors that CNN host Anderson Cooper, 52, could stand to inherit upwards of $200 million following the death of his mother Gloria Vanderbilt were dashed on Monday when probate documents in New York revealed that the silver-haired television personality would receive just under $1.5 million from his late mother’s estate.
Vanderbilt, a noted New York socialite who had worked as an actress, model, and writer prior to creating a denim empire in the 1970s, passed away in June at age 95. Her will stipulated that her eldest son, Leopold “Stan” Stokowski, 68, would inherit Vanderbilt’s luxurious midtown Manhattan condo, but everything else would go to her youngest son, Cooper. Through four marriages, Vanderbilt was the mother to four sons. Cooper’s older brother Carter died at age 23 when he jumped from a 14th-story penthouse balcony.
In addition to being a successful fashion entrepreneur, Vanderbilt was a descendant and heiress of railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt. She was born with a multimillion-dollar trust in her name and was even rumored at one time to be the inspiration for Truman Capote’s character Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Her fortune dwindled in her later life, however, as the popularity of her clothing line faded and she continued to live lavishly in New York. Vanderbilt also sued her lawyer and psychiatrist in the early 1990s for stealing millions from her and subsequently sold two homes to pay back IRS debt later that decade.
Vanderbilt was also known for her generous charitable giving, and though some reports after her death indicated that Cooper could be looking at a $200 million fortune, he told Howard Stern in 2014 that there was no trust fund for him. In a radio interview, Cooper told Stern, “My mom’s made clear to me that there’s no trust fund. … I don’t believe in inheriting money. … I think it’s a curse. … From the time I was growing up, if I felt like there was some pot of gold waiting for me, I don’t know if I would have been so motivated.”
Herself a skeptic of large inheritances, Vanderbilt said of her fortune in a 1985 interview, “I’m not knocking inherited money, but the money I’ve made has a reality to me that inherited money doesn’t have.”
