NEED TO KNOW
Anderson Cooper gave into his emotions during a touching recent conversation.
The 58-year-old journalist sat down with Megan Falley on his podcast All There Is with Anderson Cooper to discuss the death of her spouse, poet and activist Andrea Gibson.
“You use the word ‘allegedly’ when you talk about Andrea’s death, which I kind of love,” Cooper told Falley during the virtual talk.
“It felt so weird to talk with such certainty, to say ‘Andrea died’ as if any of us know what that means,” Falley said. “We actually don’t know what it means. I don’t think. I had felt so many, sort of, signs and communications that it felt, it just didn’t feel right and it still doesn’t to say ‘Andrea died,’ so I love saying that Andrea allegedly died.”
Falley continued, “To my limited understanding of a body and a spirit. Language is very important to me so I feel like if something’s not quite right, I’m going to make whatever adjustments I need.”
All There Is with Anderson Cooper/Instagram
As Falley spoke, Cooper got visibly emotional, taking off his glasses and wiping away tears. He acknowledged the moment, sharing how Falley’s comments had touched him.
“I’m crying because what you said is so unique and, I think true,” Cooper said. “Yeah, we have no idea what this means.”
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Gibson died in July at the age of 49 after being diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer.
Falley and Gibson are the subjects of the documentary film Come See Me In the Good Light, which won the Festival Favorite Award this year at the Sundance Film Festival. The documentary followed the couple’s love story amidst Gibson’s health struggles.
Cooper has also been open about his experiences with loss and grief.
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When the CNN anchor was just 10 years old, his father, actor and writer Wyatt Cooper, died unexpectedly during open-heart surgery at age 50.
Ten years later in 1988, his older brother Carter died by suicide at the age of 23 when he jumped off the terrace of mother Gloria Vanderbilt’s 14th floor New York City apartment. Gloria died in 2019 at the age of 95.
Cooper explores love and grief on his All There Is podcast, and spoke back in 2022 about how becoming a father to sons Wyatt, 5, and Sebastian, 3, inspired him to face his own grief head-on.
“I don’t want to pass along to my kids any of my own failures or limitations,” Cooper said at the time. “I want to be the best parent I can be, and I realized that the way I dealt with loss was effective for the time that it occurred, but that stuff catches up with you. You have to face it at some point.”
Cooper shares his children with his ex Benjamin Maisani.
