Gloria Vanderbilt, Model, Fashion Designer and Mother to Anderson Cooper, Dead at 95

Before the ink dried on her divorce from DiCicco, she embarked on a romance with her second husband, conductor Leopold Stokowski, who she married in 1945 — when she was just 21 to his 63. They shared sons Stanley and Christopher and were together for a decade.

After their split, she reportedly dated music icon Frank Sinatra and screen legend Marlon Brando before marrying director Sidney Lumet in 1956. They divorced in 1963.

After splitting from Lumet, Vanderbilt met her fourth and final husband, writer Wyatt Cooper, who she married in 1963, later describing the union as her “only happy marriage.” They shared sons Anderson and Carter. Cooper passed away in 1978 while undergoing heart surgery; Carter died by suicide 10 years later.

Noting her father’s death when she was a toddler, she later said: “If you don’t have a father, you don’t miss it, because you don’t know what it is. It was really only when I married Wyatt Cooper that I understood what it was like to have a father, because he was just an extraordinary father.”

Vanderbilt’s professional life was as colorful as her personal one.

She was a talented painter and collagist who also acted on the stage (“The Time of Your Life” on Broadway) and television (“Playhouse 90,” ”Studio One,” ”Kraft Theater,” ”U.S. Steel Hour”). She was a fabric designer who became an early enthusiast for designer denim. 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, it was generating over $200 million in sales. And decades later, famous-name designer jeans — dressed up or down — remain a woman’s wardrobe staple.

Vanderbilt wrote several books, including the 2004 chronicle of her love life: “It Seemed Important at the Time: A Romance Memoir,” which detailed her multitude of affairs with famous men.

The “Anderson Cooper: 360” host reflected on his memories of his beloved mother.

“I never knew we had the exact same giggle,” he said of one of his visits shortly before her passing. “I recorded it and it makes me giggle every time I watch it.”

Story cited here.