The Real Reason Anderson Cooper Won't Leave His Son An Inheritance

Anderson Cooper is one of the highest-paid news anchors in the business, but the journalist's great fortune just might stop at him. Born into an elite, wealthy New York family, Cooper's fortune is often mistaken for that of his ancestors. His mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, was the great-great-granddaughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt and reportedly received a multimillion-dollar trust fund as part of the famous family (via Yahoo! Finance).

"As a kid, my dad [Wyatt Emory Cooper] did take me to Grand Central Station to show me the statue of Commodore Vanderbilt," Cooper said in an appearance on Air Mail's "Morning Meeting" podcast earlier this year. "That was the first time I had heard the Vanderbilt name." Upon his mother's death in 2019, the news anchor reportedly did inherit some of his mother's millions, but not the same wealth the Vanderbilt name is known for. According to Page Six, Cooper received less than $1.5 million from his mother's estate, while her New York City pad went to his brother, Leopold 'Stan' Stokowski.

Now that Cooper is a father himself, the CNN journalist has his own fortune to pass down to his son, but will he? Not exactly. Here's more.

CNN's Anderson Cooper welcomed his son, Wyatt Morgan Cooper – named after his late father Wyatt Emory Cooper — in May of 2020 via a surrogate. "The interesting thing about having a child is it's made me sort of connect with my dad and my mom's past and my brother's past in a way that I never really anticipated," the news figure told Stephen Colbert in June. "I feel like I'm in communion with them in some strange way. I remember things about my dad that I never remembered before because I'm experiencing them with Wyatt as a dad." How sweet! 

That said, Cooper seems to be taking after his parents and mom Gloria Vanderbilt in more ways than one, opting to not pass down an inheritance to his son in the way his famous Vanderbilt lineage didn't leave one for him. "I don't believe in passing on huge amounts of money," Cooper said on Air Mail's "Morning Meeting" podcast in September. "I'm not that interested in money, but I don't intend to have some sort of pot of gold for my son. I'll go with what my parents said ... 'College will be paid for, and then you gotta get on it.'"

Cooper's philosophy has gone unchanged for years, with the news anchor revealing pre-fatherhood that he just doesn't believe in inheriting money. Here's more.

Just over a year after welcoming his son Wyatt to the world, Anderson Cooper is standing firm in his feelings towards "inheriting money" despite his hefty fortune. And it's a stance he's spoken on before.

In an interview with Howard Stern in 2014, the news anchor revealed his "mom's made clear to me that there's no trust fund, there's none of that." Cooper continued, "I don't believe in inheriting money. ... I think it's a curse" (via Page Six). In the interview, the journalist shared his reasoning behind being against an inheritance, telling Stern, "From the time I was growing up, if I felt that there was some pot of gold waiting for me, I don't know that I would've been so motivated" (via Yahoo! Finance).

The iconic journalist was clearly motivated, working his way up as a news reporter to a $12 million-per-year salary, according to Celebrity Net Worth. Cooper's work as host of CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360°," and frequent correspondent on CBS' "60 Minutes" has landed the known TV star a $200 million fortune. If he had just inherited his family's massive wealth, who knows if he'd be the same man? Clearly, that (semi) self-earned greatness is something he wants for his son.