Anderson Cooper Says He Long 'Hated' New Year's Eve While Co-Hosting CNN Broadcast — and Reveals the Tragic Reason Why

Mar. 15, 2025

Anderson Cooper on Dec. 31, 2024.Photo:CNN

CNN

Anderson Cooperis now a New Year’s Eve staple, but he actually spent years hating the holiday.

During the Tuesday, Dec. 31, broadcast ofNew Year’s Eve Live with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohenon CNN, Cooper, 57, revealed the personal reason behind his prior feelings toward New Year’s Eve celebrations.

Ahead of the show’s in memoriam segment, the journalist said that New Year’s Eve “is a night that’s always been hard” for him.

Cooper continued, “I just want to say that New Year’s Eve is a night that’s always been hard for me. My dad died five days after the new year, he died Jan. 5, in 1978. And I remember being 10 years old and watching New Year’s Eve celebrations that New Years, five days before he died, being filled with fear and feeling very much alone.”

From left: Wyatt Cooper, Gloria Vanderbilt Cooper, Carter Cooper and Anderson Cooper in 1972.Jack Robinson/Hulton Archive/Getty

Jack Robinson/Hulton Archive/Getty

Cooper’s father died of surgical complications. In a 2023 essay for CNN, Cooper said that despite experiencing multiple significant losses in his lifetimehe “never really grieved"until  he devoted an entire season of hisAll There Ispodcastto grief.

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The60 Minutescorrespondent went on to share that he first started working on the holiday “because I hated New Year’s Eve because of that and I wanted to just work on it.”

Cooper has been hostingNew Year’s Livesince 2002, and he has grown to “enjoy” the annual event.

“I’ve come to enjoy being with Andy. And I’ve come also to enjoy being with all of you who are maybe watching alone or who are maybe grieving and not looking forward to the new year or have not had a good year,” he said.

“And I just want you to know that in all this merriment andall this rain… you are not alone tonight,” Anderson concluded. “I am with you, we are with you. we see you and we welcome you and we’re glad you’re spending the night with us.”

source: people.com