CNN host Anderson Cooper reunites with his brother whom he had not seen for 38 years

CNN anchor Anderson Cooper has reunited with his half-brother who he had not seen for 38 years following a bizarre dispute with their mother Gloria Vanderbilt's therapist. 

Christopher Stokowoski is Gloria's son with legendary conductor Leopold Stokowoski, and Anderson was very close with his half-brother, who was 15 years his senior.

But Christopher left his family becoming a recluse in 1978 after his mother's therapist interfered with his love life.

'He adored Chris, who spoiled him rotten,' Christopher's former fiance April Sandmeyer told DailyMail.com in a 2014 interview. 

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

After the release of Anderson and Gloria's film, 'Nothing Left Unsaid', in April the two half-brothers reconnected not long after. 

'Yes, we did reconnect and reconcile after the film,' Cooper told The New York Post on Wednesday while being honored at the Hope for Depression Research Foundation Luncheon.

Scroll down for video 

Reunited: Gloria Vanderbilt and her son, Anderson Cooper (pictured together above), have reconnected with her son and his half-brother, Christopher Stokowski, after not speaking for roughly 38 years

After the April release of Anderson and Gloria's film, 'Nothing Left Unsaid', the two half-brothers reconnected not long after. Above Christopher is circled right, Anderson is circled bottom left, their mother is center and Carter Cooper stands in front

Their uncle, Harry Cooper, also said the half-siblings reunited and that even Gloria has seen her son three times since the film was released in April. 

Her most recent meeting with him was reportedly three weeks ago. 

At the time 'Nothing Left Unsaid' was released, interest in Christopher was renewed, as he was mentioned in the film and the book of the same title that was released by Gloria and her son.

Sandmeyer said that Christopher contacted the family through her.

'I'm very happy for them and glad to have played a part in them being back in touch,' she said. 

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 Mail Online interview

Legacy: Renowned conductor Leopold Stokowski 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

Back in April, Anderson revealed he was not expecting to receive any of his 90-year-old mother's $200million fortune, as he slammed inheritance money as 'a curse'. 

Anderson, who earns $11million-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.'

He could have been referring to his half-brother who lives off the estate of his conductor father and had rebuffed all contact with his family. 

RELATED ARTICLES

• Previous
• 1
• Next

• 'Shoot him, shoot him!' Suspect is pictured attacking cop... One dead and ten injured after massive gas explosion rips...

Share this article

Gloria doted on Anderson and his older brother Carter, who were 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, she previously did 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.

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.

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 Sandmeyer, and the two were planning marriage when Christopher's father, then in his 90s and living in the English village of Nether Wallop, fell ill.

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

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

The conductor, who once had an affair with Greta Garbo, was 95 when he died in September 1977. Christopher 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.

Sandmeyer 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

April still found it hard earlier this year to describe what happened. 'Christopher was the love of my life,' she told Mail Online in an exclusive interview in April.

'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'.

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

'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 Christopher was.

'She thought we had gone off and been together the whole time,' Sandmeyer said. '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 $1.6million they were ordered to pay back.

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

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,' Sandmeyer, who is a philanthropist, a picture agent and former public relations executive said.

'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.

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.

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.'

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pa3IpbCmmZmhe6S7ja6iaKaVrMBwrdGtoJyklWKAeoCTbXBtZ3ODm260zqyrZnmembKzv86nZHynn6Wys3nRnqynoaSawG6u0airoZ2iYruwwIysnJ6mXWiFbsXEmqmsZZKex6K%2B0Z5knaGjpcK1sYympq2glad6iLjOq6CaZYaWu6WuxKuZoqSkYsBuwMeeqZqomajBb7TTpqM%3D