Who was Gloria Vanderbilt? New York heiress, fashion icon and Anderson Cooper’s mother dies at 95
SOCIALITE and fashion designer Gloria Vanderbilt has died aged 95.
But who was she, what did she die of, and how is she related to Anderson Cooper?
Who was Gloria Vanderbilt?
Gloria Laura Madeleine Sophie Vanderbilt was born in 1924, a century after her great-great-grandfather started the family fortune, first in steamships, later in railroads.
He left around $100 million when he died in 1877 at age 82.
Her father, Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt, was 43, a gambler and boozer dying of liver disease when he married Gloria Morgan, 19, in 1923.
Their daughter was just one when Vanderbilt died in 1925, having gone through $25 million in 14 years.
Beneficiary of a $5 million trust fund, Vanderbilt became the "poor little rich girl" in 1934 at age 10 as the object of a custody fight between her globe-trotting mother and matriarchal aunt.
When still a teen Gloria moved to Hollywood and developed a fondness for older men - Errol Flynn and Howard Hughes were among those she dated.
Then aged just 17 she married Hollywood agent Pat DiCicco.
They divorced four years later, but before the marriage was officially over, Vanderbilt was already in love with conductor Leopold Stokowski, and they wed in 1945.
The dark-haired, tall and ultra-thin Vanderbilt partnered with Mohan Murjani, who introduced a $1 million advertising campaign in 1978 that turned the Gloria Vanderbilt brand with its signature white swan label into a sensation.
At its peak in 1980, her jeans empire was generating over $200 million in sales.
And decades later, famous-name designer jeans dressed up or down remain a woman's wardrobe staple.
In 2009, the then 85-year-old Vanderbilt penned a new novel, "Obsession: An Erotic Tale," a graphic tale about an architect's widow who discovers a cache of her husband's letters that reveal his secret sex life.
How is she related to Anderson Cooper?
After reported flings with Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando, Vanderbilt married director Sidney Lumet in 1956, and they stayed together until 1963.
Just four months after that divorce, Vanderbilt wed writer Wyatt Cooper in 1963 which she once described as her only happy marriage.
That final marriage produced two sons, Carter and Anderson before Cooper died in 1978 during open-heart surgery.
A decade later, Carter, then 23, committed suicide by jumping from his mother's 14th-floor New York penthouse terrace as she tried to stop him.
"I've had many, many loves," Vanderbilt told The Associated Press in a 2004 interview. "I always feel that something wonderful is going to happen. And it always does."
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What was her cause of death?
Gloria Vanderbilt died of stomach cancer at her home surrounded by family and friends.
Her son CNN anchor Anderson Cooper confirmed the tragic news on his TV show with an emotional on-air obituary.
"She was ready. She was ready to go," the TV star told millions of viewers. "(She died) the way she wanted."
"Gloria Vanderbilt was an extraordinary woman who loved life and lived it on her own terms," Cooper said during an on-air eulogy.
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