‘Nothing Left Unsaid’

A few days ago, I finally watched “Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt and Anderson Cooper”, a documentary on HBO.

I set it to record on the night in premiered in early April, after hearing about it on CBS Sunday Morning. I absolutely love Anderson Cooper, but never knew much about his family, other than the fact they were famous. I am also a sucker for documentaries.

In an interview with Andy Cohen, Cooper and Vanderbilt talked about how once her 90th birthday came, Cooper realized he didn’t really know much about his own mother’s life. He wanted to make sure nothing went left unsaid. So, they started corresponding through email, talking about her life, and together they wrote a book and made this documentary.

Because of the Vanderbilt name, Gloria Vanderbilt has been famous/in the public eye for most of her life. Her childhood was nothing short of turbulent – given her father passed before she was two and she didn’t have much of a relationship with her mother.

She went through a very public custody battle when her mother married a German prince; her inheritance being the focal point of most headlines.

After the court battle, she lived with her aunt who was a famous artist; a sculptor. And she later attended art school before marrying her first husband at 17. She married again at 20, to which she had her first two children, and later left him after meeting Frank Sinatra (!).

She worked as an actress, and was a famous model, where she met her third husband. While she was still married to him, she met Anderson’s father, Wyatt Cooper. And wow, he was handsome (and he was a screenwriter).

She married Wyatt, and he encouraged her to reconnect with her biological mother, but their relationship remained superficial until her death at just 60 years old.

When Anderson was 10, his father died after having heart surgery. Shortly after, Anderson started working as a child model, and said he felt this urgency to take care of those around him; a feeling that he could never stop moving forward.

I don’t want to give anything else away, but it is so good! If you’re into this type of thing, you really should watch it. It explains a lot about why Anderson is so good at what he does; and it really made me think about how little I know about my family. Everyone really does have a story.