Anderson Cooper’s Net Worth Is His Own Making—His Mother Gloria Vanderbilt Told Him ‘There’s No Trust Fund’
The net worth of Anderson Cooper would seem to be swollen as the son of railroad heiress Gloria Vanderbilt, with millions upon millions in inheritance.
However, the popular news woman did not receive her estimated $200 million estate.
“My mother’s made it clear to me that there is no trust fund,” he told Howard Stern in 2014, just before his mother died in 2019, and he explained why he was relieved there wasn’t. “I don’t believe in inherited wealth… I believe it is a curse. And i don’t know whether I would have been as motivated growing up if I thought there was a pot of gold waiting for me.”
Rather, the beloved broadcaster has carved his own path to a massive fortune (of course, there are other benefits and privileges that come with being a “nepo baby” aside from financial ones), amassing a sizable fortune through his successful career with CNN as a correspondent, talk show host, and political commentator.
He has received 18 Emmy Awards, two Peabody Awards, and the Haitian government’s National Order of Honour and Merit for his coverage of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Continue reading to learn more about Anderson Cooper’s net worth.
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How much is the net worth of Anderson Cooper?
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Anderson Cooper’s net worth is estimated to be over $50 million. He was born in Manhattan, New York, the younger son of author Wyatt Emory Cooper and socialite/artist Gloria Vanderbilt, the last direct descendant of shipping and railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt.
Anderson Cooper’s great-great-grandfather, Cornelius, died in 1877 with a net wealth of $100 million—$2.7 trillion after inflation. Cooper claimed it was “an absurd amount of money today, but in 1877 it boggled the imagination” on an episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. “Commodore Vanderbilt owned one out of every twenty dollars in circulation… He was wealthier than the US Treasury.”
Anderson Cooper investigated the history of his family on his mother’s side in his book, Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty, showing how their huge fortune had fallen to virtually nothing by the time it went to Cooper’s mother Gloria. Reginald died in debt at the age of 45 owing to drunkenness, and his account held slightly more than $423,000. Gloria got $2.5 million (or nearly $36 million by today’s standards) from a trust fund set up by her grandpa, Cornelius Vanderbilt II.
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Cooper claimed there was “no trust fund” in his mother’s will, but after her death at the age of 95, Page Six found Vanderbilt’s will, which was filed in Manhattan surrogate court, did in fact leave Cooper with nearly all of her wealth in the form of property. While the exact amount was unknown at the time, it was eventually determined to be less than $1.5 million. Cooper will follow in his mother’s footsteps by leaving little to his boys Wyatt and Sebastian other than the cost of their college tuition.
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“I don’t believe in passing on large sums of money,” the CNN anchor, 54, said on the Morning Meeting podcast with Air Mail’s Ashley Baker and Michael Hainey before the birth of his second kid. “I’m not too interested in money, but I don’t aim to have some sort of pot of gold for my son. I’ll take what my folks stated… ‘College will be paid for, and then you’ll have to get started.'”
Cooper and ex-partner Benjamin Maisani have two boys, Wyatt, born in April 2020, and Sebastian, born in February 2022. While the couple is no longer together (they divorced in 2018), they remain the best of friends and successfully co-parent their two youngsters. “It’s fantastic. It’s an uncommon situation, but I knew he’d be a fantastic father, and he is.
We’re ex-spouses, but we’re family, and we love each other as family and co-parents,” Cooper told People. “There’s the normal bickering that any two people have when there’s a kid involved, like what time should he go to swimming class, or should he wear the overalls, or anything,” he confesses, adding, “But all dumb, small things. We got along fantastically.”
Cooper has a beach house in the Brazilian coastal town of Trancoso and famously refurbished a 19th-century firehouse in New York’s Greenwich Village for $4.3 million in January 2010. The building has four levels and over 8,240 square feet. The home was used as the backdrop for an H&M advertising starring David Beckham and Kevin Hart in 2015.
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Cooper offered his late mother’s apartment at 30 Beekman Place on the east side of Midtown Manhattan—a classic five on the second floor—for sale in 2021 for $1.12 million, with monthly maintenance costing $4,311. “The flat is on a low floor. He has significant maintenance, and is in a bit off-the-beaten-path neighborhood,” the New York Times reported at the time. It has also been unrenovated since 1997, when Ms. Vanderbilt moved in, and requires a comprehensive repair.” It sold within a few months of hitting the market.
“We moved every four years when I was growing up,” Cooper told the Times of his time in the flat. “My mother was constantly rebuilding and redecorating, never content with the story the space was conveying at the time. Moving would be a component of that. With a place, she would become restless. It had to alter for her to stay in this apartment for 23 years, which is an eternity for my mother. I believe she became bored of moving and decided to burrow into this location and just work on it.”
What is Anderson Cooper’s CNN salary?
Cooper has a yearly salary of $12 million as the host of CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360. Cooper began his media career after receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and international relations from Yale.
He joined ABC News as a correspondent in 1995 and was promoted to co-anchor of World News Now in September 1999. He joined CNN in 2001, presenting American Morning alongside Paula Zahn. And a year later became the network’s weekend prime-time anchor. On September 8, 2003, Cooper was granted his own show, Anderson Cooper 360. In 2007, he agreed to a multi-year contract with CNN that would also allow him to continue contributing as a correspondent for CBS’s 60 Minutes. He increased his annual compensation from $2 million to $4 million.
As previously said, Cooper has received multiple honors for his coverage of major world events. In 1997, he won an Emmy for his coverage of Princess Diana’s funeral; in 2005. He received a Peabody for his coverage of Hurricane Katrina; and in 2011, he won two Emmys for his coverage of the Haiti earthquake.
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Cooper’s profile rose dramatically during the 2016 presidential election. He was in the running to become Kelly Ripa’s permanent co-host on ABC’s Live—preferred Ripa’s option to replace Michael Strahan. Cooper, though, told the Hollywood Reporter that continuing at CNN was a primary priority. He agreed to a new long-term contract with the news network. But would continue to fill in on the show and provide several items to CBS’s 60 Minutes each season.
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Cooper has been hosting CNN’s New Year’s Eve Live since 2002, and he has appeared with Andy Cohen since 2017. For their on-screen antics, they’ve become something of an institution. “Anderson and I will be the ones partying on CNN [but] responsibly,” Cohen told Rolling Stone. “My role is to take Anderson out of his comfort zone [and] my job is to be a party ringleader for everyone watching us on New Year’s Eve. And I intend to continue doing so. In fact, if the journalists don’t drink this year, I’ll be partying even harder on their behalf.”
“One of the most great things about doing New Year’s Eve with Anderson is that I don’t have to plan anything. New Year’s Eve is a holiday that stresses people out; it rarely delivers,” he stated. This will be my sixth year, and it has delivered on every occasion. I’m completely smitten.”
