Anderson Cooper is an American television journalist and political commentator, best known for his CNN news broadcast, “Anderson Cooper 360”. Cooper also is a correspondent for 60 minutes on CBS and has previously served as a host of his own daytime television show, “Anderson Live” from 2011 to 2013.
Anderson Cooper owns real estate property in Connecticut, Brazil, and previously owned property in the Hamptons, although his primary residence is in Greenwich Village in New York City.
Anderson Cooper is estimated to have a net worth of over $100 million and earns over $12 million a year from CNN. Cooper is said to be the number 1 richest television news anchors.
Although a majority of his wealth is due to his career as a popular news anchor, Anderson Cooper does come from the incredibly rich Vanderbilt family. His mother, Gloria Laura Vanderbilt, is the great-great-granddaughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt and had a net worth of $200 million before her passing in 2019 due to stomach cancer.
Anderson Cooper’s Life and Television Career
Anderson Cooper was born in New York City and was exposed to his mother’s extravagant lifestyle and powerful social circle from an early age. As a baby, he was even photographed for the cover of Harper’s Baazar and modeled in ad campaigns for Macy’s and Ralph Lauren.
Cooper’s father died when he was 12 years old, and his brother, Carter, committed suicide a decade later. Struck with the feeling of true loss, Anderson Cooper was driven to cover news and investigate questions of survival.
In the 1980s, Anderson Cooper enrolled at the Dalton School in Manhattan, an exclusive, private school, and later went on to attend Yale University to study political science. During his time at the university, he interned with the CIA.
His first job was as a fact-checker fr Channel One, but he quickly became bored with his day job. He decided to quit the position and take a video camera to Asia, Myanmar, and parts of Africa to record footage of conflicts.
The footage landed him the job as a chief international correspondent for Channel One.
He was later hired by ABC News and became a co-anchor of World News Now, but after becoming bored again of the schedule, he quit to host a new reality show on ABC. After the terrorist attack on New York City on September 11th, 2001, Cooper decided to go back to the news.
Upon returning back to the news world, CNN hired him as a correspondent and substitute anchor. Of course, Anderson Cooper became quite popular and CNN gave him his own news show, “Anderson Cooper 360”, only two years later.
Cooper covered everything and reported on world news such as Hurricane Katrina, the death of Pope John Paul II, the Boston Marathon bombing, as well as political debates and elections. The show was a major hit and still remains a successful global newscast for reporting and investigations.
Although “Anderson Cooper 360” remains his priority, Cooper still is a regular correspondent for CBS’s 60 Minutes.
The Anchor’s Real Estate Properties
Anderson Cooper has had quite a number of properties throughout his lifetime, including a gorgeous Brazilian getaway, two Hampton’s homes a few steps away from the beach, Connecticut, and his primary residence, a firehouse in Manhattan turned into a stunning house.
Anderson Cooper purchased his primary 19th-century firehouse residence in Greenwich Village in 2010 for $4.2 million. Cooper, along with architect Cary Tamarkin, turned the old firehouse into a spacious 8,240 square foot home.
Although the residence was completely transformed to be more chic and modern, Cooper left some original pieces from the 19th-century, including a brass firepole, original beams, ceilings, and added some vintage equipment.
The home was built in 1906 and is 1 of 3 remaining fire patrol houses in New York City.
Along with his beautiful New York firehouse, Anderson Cooper also has a vacation home in Brazil. Located in the town of Trancoso, the tropical getaway is a colonial-style home featuring a stone kitchen, dining room, veranda, a guest “bungalow”, a treehouse, outdoor living room, and pool.
Anderson Cooper purchased a giant mansion in Bantam, Connecticut in 2014 for an unknown price tag. The Connecticut home features 10 bedrooms, 9 bathrooms, a library, a massive kitchen, a 75-foot swimming pool, a tennis court, and a garden house.
The home also features well-preserved original architectural elements from the original build and is truly the definition of a luxurious country estate.
As if three homes weren’t enough, Anderson Cooper also previously owned real estate in the Hamptons, with two lakefront properties. Both of the Hampton homes were cottage-style residences with 3 acres of land attached.
Both homes were sold by Cooper in 2015- one of the residences for $3 million and the other for $2.4 million.