Anderson Cooper Discusses Brother's Suicide With Mom Gloria Vanderbilt [VIDEO]

Anderson Cooper's new daytime talk show Anderson premiered just a week ago, and he's already bringing in the big guns. After interviewing the family of Amy Winehouse last week, Cooper brought his mother Gloria Vanderbilt on the show and the two discussed their own family tragedies.

In a candid, somewhat awkward, but mostly heartwarming interview, Cooper and his designer mother discussed love and loss, and the CNN host revealed things about his past that were largely unknown to his audience. Cooper's father and Vanderbilt's husband Wyatt Emory Cooper, who Vanderbilt still believes is the love of her life, died at a young age and Vanderbilt never married again. Anderson was only ten years old when his father died suddenly of heart failure.

A decade later, an even more horrifying tragedy struck the Vanderbilt-Cooper family: Cooper's brother Carter leapt to his death while Vanderbilt was trying to coax him away from a ledge in the family's New York City apartment building.

Cooper and Vanderbilt were suprisingly candid about discussing the tragedy, especially as Cooper has previously been reluctant to reveal much about his personal life or talk about his family.

Mother and son both agreed that closure is a TV word, and Vanderbilt says she thinks of her late son all the time. She also said that she had considered going over the edge after him, but stopped herself when she thought of Anderson.

Cooper praised his mother for never letting the tough times in her life harden her, and for always believing that the next great love is just around the corner.

In a more lighthearted moment, Cooper brought up his mother's dating history with Marlon Brando, with both parties conceding the relationship did not span much more than one night.

(By the way, Gloria Vanderbilt is 87 years old. Looking pretty good!)

[Source: Business Insider]