Andy Cohenhas fond, beautiful memories of his palAnderson Cooper‘s late mother,Gloria Vanderbilt— especially of their close relationship.
“I think how sweet — every time I saw her with Anderson, he always held her hand, which really touched me,” theWatch What Happens Livehost, 51, told PEOPLE on Thursday at hisBravotalk show’s 10th anniversary red carpet and talk event at the Paley Center in New York City.
The heiress, socialite and fashion icondied at age 95 on Mondayin her Manhattan home with friends and family at her side. Cooper, 52, announced his mother’s death with a touching obituary on CNN, explaining that the family had learned earlier this month that “she had very advanced cancer in her stomach and that it had spread.”
“When the doctor told her she had cancer, she was silent for a while, and then she said, ‘Well, it’s like that old song: Show me the way to get out of this world, because that’s where everything is,’ ” he said.
Andy Cohen (L), Gloria Vanderbilt and Anderson Cooper.Charles Sykes/Bravo via Getty
Rabbani and Solimene Photography/WireImage
One day after her death, Coopershared a touching tribute to Vanderbilton Instagram. The CNN journalistshared a series of photosof his mother throughout her life, including a photo of them together and a photo holding each other’s hands in her final days.
“In the end, after all else is stripped away, there is only love. My mom believed in love more than anyone,” Cooper wrote. “It was her guide, her solace, it’s what drove her,and in her final moments, it is what surrounded her.”
” ‘I love you, you know that,’ she would say to me, and I did, I knew it from the moment I was born, and I will know it till the moment I die,” he added. “It was her greatest gift to me.”
Andy Cohen (L), Gloria Vanderbilt and Anderson Cooper.Charles Sykes/Bravo/NBCU/Getty
On Monday’s episode ofWWHL,Cohen paid tribute to Vanderbilt, beginning, “Born to one of the most famous families in the country and thrust into the spotlight at a young age, Gloria Vanderbilt made a name for herself not just as a Vanderbilt but as a painter, a writer, an actressand of course, a fashion designer.”
“She lived a life filled with incredible peaksand impossible obstacles. Through it all she remained eternally optimistic with a wicked sense of humor,” the host continued, before rolling clips of Vanderbilt’s appearance on the show in 2016 with Cooper, calling her “as captivating and radiant as ever.”
“We are sending Anderson all of our love as wehonor a great, great woman,” Cohen said Monday. “May Gloria Vanderbilt rest in peace.”
source: people.com
