Gloria Vanderbilt and Anderson Cooper Share Moving Instagram Tributes to Carter Cooper

Carter Cooper took his own life on July 22, 1988. Thirty years later, Vanderbilt and Cooper's brother, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper shared vintage photographs and emotional tributes to the loved one they lost too early.

"Thirty years ago today, before my eyes, I lost Carter Cooper," the 94-year-old Vanderbilt wrote on Instagram Sunday. "My son. My life. My hope. In the years since, his brother, my beloved Anderson, has been by my side, giving me love and strength. Carter is close and alive within me, as he was from the beginning, and as he always will be."

Carter leapt to his death from the 14th floor penthouse that belonged to Vanderbilt. She was there at the time it happened. Vanderbilt, who spoke to Town & Country last year about her meteoric rise on the social-media platform, also discussed losing her son in the 2016 HBO documentary Nothing Left Unsaid: "I thought the worst thing that had ever happened to me was when I was 9," she said, referring to the famously bitter battle over her custody between her aunt, Gertrude, and Gloria's young mother. "But that wasn't the worst. The worst is to lose a child."

IMAGE GETTY IMAGES/ SUSAN WOOD/GETTY IMAGES

Gloria Vanderbilt and her two sons, Carter Vanderbilt Cooper (1965 - 1988) and Anderson Cooper, walk along a sidewalk in New York City in March 1976.

The heiress and fashion designer's relationship with Anderson Cooper is a focus of the documentary, and after its premiere, mother and son released their co-written book The Rainbow Comes and Goes: A Mother and Son on Life, Love, and Loss.

Anderson Cooper has previously written about his brother's death, and he says the pain has not lessened. 

"30 years ago today, my brother, Carter Cooper, died by suicide. He was 23 years old. I miss him, and think about him every day," he wrote on Instagram. "The shock of his death is as painful today as it was thirty years ago."

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This story originally appeared on Townandcountrymag.com.
* Minor edits have been made by the Townandcountry.ph editors.