EXCLUSIVE: Revealed: CNN host Anderson Cooper has not seen his brother for 35 years - after a bizarre dispute over their mother Gloria Vandberbilt's SHRINK

  • Christopher Stokowski, son of renowned conductor Leopold and Gloria Vanderbilt, abandoned his family and became a recluse after his mother's therapist interfered in his relationship
  • 'Anderson adored Chris,' Christopher's ex-fiance April Sandmeyer told MailOnline in an exclusive interview. His disappearance broke Anderson's heart
  • Chris, who was 15 years older than Anderson, 'spoiled him rotten' with Lego sets and other toys and frequent trips to the beach
  • When Cooper remarked this week that he was against inheriting money because it's 'an initiative sucker... a curse' he may have been referring to his half brother, who has lived off his father's estate all these years

By Annette Witheridge

Published: 11:59 EST, 4 April 2014 | Updated: 20:16 EST, 4 April 2014

CNN host Anderson Cooper has not seen his half-brother for 35 years – after a bizarre dispute over their mother Gloria Vanderbilt’s shrink, MailOnline can reveal today.

Christopher Stokowski cut off all contact with his family in 1978 after accusing heiress Gloria’s therapist of meddling in his love life.

Anderson was very close with his half-brother, who was 15 years his junior.

Favorite son: Heiress Gloria Vanderbilt doted on Anderson Cooper and dedicated her book, A Mother's Story, to him. But there was no mention of Christopher in the memoir

Favorite son: Heiress Gloria Vanderbilt doted on Anderson Cooper and dedicated her book, A Mother's Story, to him. But there was no mention of Christopher in the memoir

Recluse: Christopher Stokowski (pictured right from his college days), the younger son of famed conductor Leopold Stokowski and Gloria, cut himself off from the family 35 years ago. He has not been seen or heard from since. Gloria is pictured here with Chris' brother, Stan, left
Recluse: Christopher Stokowski (pictured right from his college days), the younger son of famed conductor Leopold Stokowski and Gloria, cut himself off from the family 35 years ago. He has not been seen or heard from since. Gloria is pictured here with Chris' brother, Stan, left

Recluse: Christopher Stokowski (pictured right from his college days), the younger son of famed conductor Leopold Stokowski and Gloria, cut himself off from the family 35 years ago. He has not been seen or heard from since. Gloria is pictured left

‘He adored Chris, who spoiled him rotten,’ Christopher’s former fiance April Sandmeyer told MailOnline in an exclusive interview.

‘Anderson was only 10 when his daddy died and his adored older half-brother disappeared. It’s heart breaking’.

When Cooper revealed earlier this week that he was not expecting to receive any of his 90-year-old mother’s $200 million fortune, he slammed inheritance money as 'a curse'.

Cooper, who earns $11 million-a-year as one of CNN’s top journalists, was clearly speaking from bitter experience. 'I don’t believe in inheriting money,' he said. 'I think it’s an initiative sucker. I think it is a curse.'

Abandoned: April Sandmeyer, a New York consultant, was engaged to Christopher but broke it off after Gloria's shrink interfered. 'He was the love of my life' she said in an exclusive MailOnline interview

Abandoned: April Sandmeyer, a New York consultant, was engaged to Christopher but broke it off after Gloria's shrink interfered. 'He was the love of my life' she said in an exclusive MailOnline interview

He could well have been referring to Chris, a recluse who lives off the estate of his conductor father Leopold Stokowski and rebuffs all contact with his family.

And now MailOnline can reveal the true heartache behind the bitter dispute that broke up his family.


Railroad heiress Gloria doted on Anderson and his older brother Carter, the sons from her fourth marriage to writer Wyatt Cooper, and has often referred to them as her 'golden' boys.

She is also close to her eldest son Stan Stokowski, a 63-year-old landscape gardener, and his three children. Yet nowadays she does not acknowledge his brother Christopher.

In her 1996 memoir A Mother’s Story there is no mention of him. The book tells of her heartache over Carter, who committed suicide aged 23 by leaping out of her 14th floor Manhattan apartment. She dedicated the book to Anderson.

 

More...

And in an earlier autobiography, It Seemed Important At The Time, she details her four marriages and flings with Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando but only mentions her two eldest sons once.

Gloria married Stokowski, the musical genius behind Walt Disney’s Fantasia in 1945. In her memoirs she refers to the world famous orchestra leader as God.

Legacy: Renowned conductor Leopold Stowkowski left a large chunk of his vast recording fortune to Christopher, who shunned his father's name and wanted to strike out as a musician in his own right. Sandmeyer believes he goes by an alias today

Legacy: Renowned conductor Leopold Stowkowski left a large chunk of his vast recording fortune to Christopher, who shunned his father's name and wanted to strike out as a musician in his own right. Sandmeyer believes he goes by an alias today

Affair: Gloria created something of a sensation by having an affair with Frank Sinatra and leaving her internationally famous husband, maestro Leopold Stokowski. She got custody of Stan and Chris

Affair: Gloria created something of a sensation by having an affair with Frank Sinatra and leaving her internationally famous husband, maestro Leopold Stokowski. She got custody of Stan and Chris

But their marriage was a tumultuous one and following her affair with Sinatra they divorced ten years later. Gloria also fought for custody of Stan and Chris, then aged five and three.

An aspiring actress and artist, Gloria finally found the happiness and success she’d craved her entire life when she met magazine editor Wyatt Cooper, who came from a family with no money.

They married on Christmas Eve 1963 and Gloria was soon pregnant with Carter and then Anderson. By the mid-1970s she was also a household name with her signature fashion jeans.

Chris, who was painfully shy as a child and led a solitary life at Bard College, hated his mother’s new- found fame. He also shied away from using his surname as he tried to carve out his own career as a musician.

While his gregarious older brother Stan moved in with his girlfriend and played drums in a jazz group, Christopher lived at home with his mother’s new family and played in a band at New York’s fabled Max’s Kansas City under a fake name.

In 1974, he fell in love with socialite April Sandmeyer, and the two were planning marriage when Chris’s father, then in his 90s and living in the English village of Nether Wallop, fell ill.

Oldest son: Cooper's half-brother brother, 63-year-old Stan Stokowski, is still very close with Gloria. He refused to comment about the whereabouts of his brother Christopher

Oldest son: Cooper's half-brother brother, 63-year-old Stan Stokowski, is still very close with Gloria. He refused to comment about the whereabouts of his brother Christopher

The duo moved to Europe, splitting their time between Britain and Stokowski’s estate in the South of France.

Stokowski, who once had an affair with Greta Garbo, was 95 when he died in September 1977. Chris inherited a large chunk of his father’s vast recording fortune but back home in New York his life quickly unraveled.

His stepfather Cooper died months later, aged just 50, and Gloria fell under the spell of a handsome therapist called Dr Christ Zois.

In her memoirs, Gloria describes him as a young Ryan O’Neil lookalike and tells how she paid for him, his family and lawyer friend Thomas Andrews to fly to France on Concorde.

She lavished them with grand holidays and Cartier watches. They were frequent guests at her homes in Manhattan and the Hamptons – and Zois constantly offered advice on her children and their relationships.

April was so shocked and upset when she discovered Zois had been meddling in her relationship and making comments about her that she broke up with Christopher.

Happier days: Gloria and husband Wyatt Cooper and sons Anderson (left) and Carter, at their Southhampton, NY home, were the portrait of a loving family. Wyatt died suddenly in 1977 and Carter committed suicide in 1988

Happier days: Gloria and husband Wyatt Cooper and sons Anderson (left) and Carter, at their Southhampton, NY home, were the portrait of a loving family. Wyatt died suddenly in 1977 and Carter committed suicide in 1988

Today April still finds it hard to describe what happened. 'Christopher was the love of my life,' she tells MailOnline in an exclusive interview.

‘But I was so devastated when I discovered what Zois had done that I felt I had no choice but to break things off with Christopher. I can’t tell you what Zois said, it is just too personal. But I was heartbroken’.

Chris, then 26, finally broke away from his mother and moved into an apartment on East 44th Street to try and win April back.

When she refused to see him, he informed his mother that he was leaving New York for good.

'He just wanted to get away. It was all too much for him,' said a former associate.

'Chris never felt like he was loved and April felt the same – they were two peas in a pod.  Then Gloria’s shrink got in the middle and messed everything up.

Mommy dearest: Anderson grew up the privileged son of heiress Gloria. Today, with his $11 million CNN salary, he has no regrets about not receiving any part of his mother's $200 million fortune.

Mommy dearest: Anderson grew up the privileged son of heiress Gloria. Today, with his $11 million CNN salary, he has no regrets about not receiving any part of his mother's $200 million fortune.

'Chris just took off – at first he went to his father’s old farm in Nether Wallop [England], then he headed for the hills. He was in Massachusetts or New Hampshire, then Vermont. But he did not tell his family any of that.'

Ten years later when April attended Carter’s funeral in 1988 Gloria rushed up to her and asked her where Chris was.

'She thought we had gone off and been together the whole time,' says April. 'She had no idea we had broken up.'

By then Gloria had discovered that Dr Zois and the lawyer Edwards had ripped her off to the tune of millions. She successfully sued them but never received a penny of the $1.6 million they were ordered to pay back.

Edwards died of cancer shortly afterwards but Zois was stripped of his medical license after he was convicted of bank fraud and conspiracy to commit bank fraud.

‘Zois ruined so many lives – mine, Christopher’s, Gloria’s and Charlie Chaplin’s widow Oona, Gloria’s best friend, who he also ripped off,' says philanthropist April, a picture agent and former public relations executive.

‘If I had known at the time that Gloria sued Zois, I would have offered to be a witness for her.

‘In fact, I should have sued him myself, but I won’t talk about it or the family other than to say we were all very happy before Zois interfered. They loved me and I loved them’.

Gloria discovered that Zois and Edwards had not only sold off her $10 million-a-year fashion and home furnishing business behind her back, they had also failed to pay any of her taxes.

Betrothal: Anderson and Benjamin Maisani are planning to get married. But while 90-year-old Gloria is likely to attend their ceremony, his half-brother Christopher is not

Betrothal: Anderson and Benjamin Maisani are planning to get married. But while 90-year-old Gloria is likely to attend their ceremony, his half-brother Christopher is not

She was forced to sell her homes to repay the taxman but battled back to forge a second career as a memoir writer and artist.

Chris was also a talented artist, creating shadow boxes and other small pieces. But he was too shy to exhibit under his own name.

‘Wherever he is, he won’t be using the names Stokowski or Vanderbilt’, said his associate from the 1970s.

‘He had very few friends growing up and after he left he stayed in touch with just one person, who sadly died in 2005. I know he asked after April, he wanted to know how she was doing. But that was it.

‘Even in the center of Manhattan he was hermit-like. He was a regular at Max’s Kansas City – the hottest club going – but no one knew his name.

‘The Rolling Stones, David Bowie and Andy Warhol were regulars. Chris sometimes played on stage but he used a fake name.

‘His father was world famous, a legend in classical music circles, and he didn’t want to be judged on that.

‘And his mother’s name was embroidered on the back pocket of every other pair of jeans. He used to walk down the street counting the number of women wearing her jeans.

‘Then his father died, his mother got involved with the shrink and April broke up with him. It was all too much. He had to get away.

‘I feel sorry for Anderson. He adored Chris, who spoiled him rotten buying him LEGO sets and other fancy toys. They spent every summer building sandcastles on the beach.

My two sons: By 1978 Christopher had cut off all contact with Gloria and his half-brothers Wyatt and Carter. Gloria didn't even know that Chris' fiance April had left him until Wyatt's funeral ten years later

My two sons: By 1978 Christopher had cut off all contact with Gloria and his half-brothers Wyatt and Carter. Gloria didn't even know that Chris' fiance April had left him until Wyatt's funeral ten years later

‘Anderson was only 10 when his daddy died and his adored older half-brother disappeared. It’s heartbreaking.’

Gloria has only spoken once publicly about Chris, telling the Daily Telegraph in 2004: 'He cut himself off completely from all of us. He told us what he wanted to do and he’s done it.

‘When Carter died I thought he would come back but he didn’t. And we respect his wishes.’

Stan, a renowned landscaper in the Hamptons whose work has been featured in Architectural Digest, told the MailOnline: 'I really don’t want to talk about this.'

Anderson’s spokeswoman Lauren Varney said: ‘We do not comment on our client’s personal life’.

Gloria did not respond to a message left at her apartment building. Zois, now 74 and a scriptwriter, did not return calls.

Chris’s last known address was a post office box in Montpelier, Vermont.

Anderson, now 46 and planning to marry his bar owner boyfriend Benjamin Maisani, remains close to his mother but is insistent he doesn’t want her money.

He told radio show host Howard Stern on Monday: ‘Who has inherited a lot of money that has gone on to do things in their own life?

‘From the time I was growing up, if I felt there was some pot of gold waiting for me, I don’t know that I would have been so motivated.

‘My dad grew up really poor in Mississippi. I paid attention to that.’

Comments (127)

Share what you think

 View all

The comments below have not been moderated.

What do we know of the reason April broke off with Chris?

1
4
 Click to rate

Seriously, that was a question. The article, of course, is not clear.

0
2
 Click to rate

What a complicated mess. I'd love to be rich, but it certainly seems that the super rich make many poor choices. Perhaps we all do.

1
13
 Click to rate

I don't think so .. the rich make the same stupid choices we all do .. they just have more money, not more brains.

0
1
 Click to rate

Is Gloria going to give it all to charity or will the family get it all??

1
4
 Click to rate

An offspring doesn't just cut himself off. Unless he's had it up to here with certain family dynamics. Doesn't sound like he's living the high life like the others.

0
24
 Click to rate

I like Cooper He's done good work; whether growing up knowing he could financially take on his endeavors might have made a difference early on until he made his own fortune. I don't know how it would affect me not coming from money. Though it's fair to say, we come in with nothing and go out with nothing.

4
21
 Click to rate

Can we retire the "who cares", "nobody cares", "we dont care" phrases already. The very fact that you wasted YOUR time to click on the story and comment, is clear to everyone here, that you do care.

6
36
 Click to rate

THANK YOU!

2
16
 Click to rate

Yes, that's the first rule of the internet. If you take time to click and comment, you care.

1
17
 Click to rate

Gertrude Vanderbilt, who raised Gloria, used part of her inheritance to create the famed Whitney Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Her son, Sonny Whitney, (Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney) inherited a large sum of money to a regular person, but for a Whitney it was a pittance.(If I recall correctly it was $10,000 or $40,000 in the 1920s.) He turned that relatively modest nest egg into the Hudson Bay Company, Pan Am Airlines, and heavily invested in the David O. Selznick studios. Even though he was born with a silver spoon he went on to create his own empire. Anderson is being a true gentleman, a true Vanderbilt. In 20 years time he will be owning his own news network. :-)

20
67
 Click to rate

"Who has inherited a lot of money that has gone on to do things in their own life?" Three I can name off the top of my head, though if I googled I'm sure I could find many more: Mitt Romney, Ross Perot's son, Donald Trump....While you can argue they had advantages other didn't(undeniably true)...Anderson's statement was likely just an attempt at atoning for the guild he feels having lead a privileged life. Much like those who desire to atone for their 'white privilege'

77
59
 Click to rate

"Who has inherited a lot of money that has gone on to do things in their own life?" Three I can name off the top of my head, though if I googled I'm sure I could find many more: Mitt Romney, Ross Perot's son, Donald Trump....While you can argue they had advantages other didn't(undeniably true)...Anderson's statement was likely just an attempt at atoning for the guild he feels having lead a privileged life. Much like those who desire to atone for their 'white privilege'

76
34
 Click to rate

Reads like a Jerry Springer Show episode. White people with money....

63
47
 Click to rate

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

Add your comment

By posting your comment you agree to our house rules.

Who is this week's top commenter? Find out now