Cooper reunites with missing bro
ANDERSON Cooper has been reunited with his long-lost half-brother, who disappeared 38 years ago following a bizarre dispute with his mother Gloria Vanderbilt’s shrink.
Christopher Stokowski, son of conductor Leopold Stokowski and Vanderbilt, abandoned his wealthy family and became a recluse in 1978 after his mother’s therapist reportedly interfered in his love life.
Cooper “adored” his half-brother, Christopher’s former fiancée April Sandmeyer said, and his disappearance left the CNN host devastated. Christopher fled around the same time that Cooper’s father, Wyatt Cooper, died during heart surgery, when the famed journalist was just 10.
The release of Cooper and Vanderbilt’s film, “Nothing Left Unsaid,” in April — which, despite the title, glossed over Christopher — sparked renewed interest in his missing brother, who contacted the family through Sandmeyer. “I’m very happy for them and glad to have played a part in them being back in touch,” she said.
Cooper confirmed to Page Six of his brother, “Yes, we did reconnect and reconcile after the film,” but declined to discuss it further. His uncle Harry Coo
per added that the siblings reunited, and Vanderbilt has seen Christopher three times since the doc was released, and as recently as three weeks ago.
Cooper was honored on Tuesday at the Hope for Depression Research Foundation Luncheon, in front of a crowd that included Chuck Scar
borough and co-chair Audrey Gruss. Cooper spoke about his brother Carter Cooper’s suicide when the CNN host was 21. “He jumped off a balcony at my mother’s apartment building, in front of my mother, when she was begging him not to . . . Suicide is something that we don’t speak much about, and unfortunately there is still that stigma and shame surrounding [it].”
Cooper also said the tragedies in his life inspired him to become a journalist. “That motivated me to go out in those early years and . . . to seek out people who were struggling to survive was because I was suffering myself, and I wasn’t sure how I would survive.”