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Anderson Cooper, who earns a reported $12 million a year from CNN alone, says he won't leave his son an inheritance

Anderson Cooper
Anderson Cooper. Steven Ferdman / Stringer / Getty Images
  • Anderson Cooper said in a new interview that he wouldn't leave a "pot of gold" for his son.

  • "I don't believe in passing on huge amounts of money," Cooper told the "Morning Meeting" podcast.

  • Cooper's mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, was born into one of America's wealthiest families.

  • Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Anderson Cooper said on the "Morning Meeting" podcast that he would not be leaving an inheritance for his son, Wyatt Morgan Cooper.

Wyatt was born via surrogacy last year and is the only child of Cooper, who co-parents Wyatt with his ex-boyfriend Benjamin Maisani.

Cooper appeared on the "Morning Meeting" podcast with editors of the weekly newsletter Air Mail to talk about his new book about his ancestors, "Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty."

Anderson Cooper Gloria Vanderbilt
Cooper and his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt. Roy Rochlin/FilmMagic

Cooper's mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, was born into one of America's wealthiest families, as she was the great-great-granddaughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt, who made a fortune from building a railroad empire. According to Forbes, she was born with a trust fund that was equivalent to $35 million today and then went on to build a fashion empire that earned $100 million annually.

When asked about whether Cooper would leave an inheritance for his own son after researching his family history, the CNN anchor said: "I don't believe in passing on huge amounts of money. I don't know what I'll have. I'm not that interested in money, but I don't intend to have some sort of pot of gold for my son."

"I'll go with what my parents said," he added, quoting: "'College will be paid for, and then you've got to get on it.'"

Cooper earns about $12 million a year from CNN, per Yahoo Finance, citing multiple reports.

Cooper's mother died in 2019, but in 2014 the now-54-year-old anchor had already made clear his view on inheriting her money.

He said on "The Howard Stern Show": "My mom's made clear to me that there's no trust fund. There's none of that. I don't believe in inheriting money … I think it's a curse … From the time I was growing up, if I felt like there was some pot of gold waiting for me, I don't know if I would have been so motivated."

The "James Bond" actor Daniel Craig also recently told Candis Magazine that he didn't agree with leaving inheritances.

Craig, who has two children, said: "I don't want to leave great sums to the next generation. I think inheritance is quite distasteful. My philosophy is get rid of it or give it away before you go."

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