Today CNN's Anderson Cooper appeared on Howard Stern, who will soon be returning to America's Got Talent. Cooper opened up about his own brother's suicide, growing up rich and Megyn Kelly's Fox News.
Howard started the interview off with a bang, when he asked Cooper why ratings at CNN were so low, and why Fox News continues to dominate the ratings:
"I do think in cable news, the networks that have strong opinions-so whether you are a conservative network like Fox or a liberal network like MSNC-when there's not a huge news story going on, they're entertaining and that's what people tune into. It seems CNN has done well when there is some big news happening and people are tuning in to see what is going on. It's a difficult place to be in when there isn't a major news story going on."
Later in the interview, things took a much darker tone, when Howard brought up the subject of Anderson Cooper's brother. Mr. Cooper's brother tragically took his own life and Anderson didn't shy away when asked about this deeply traumatic portion of his life:
"It's interesting. The week after he killed himself I went to his apartment and I was taking a cab back to my apartment. Because I hadn't left...there were reporters outside waiting to get pictures. And someone on the radio said [how could someone rich kill themselves] and it was so odd. I don't understand how someone could see it that way. It still shapes my life. It's not the first thing that I think about when I wake up, but there isn't a day that goes by. That's the thing about suicide, it suddenly injects this language and vocabulary into your life that's always there. It's why if your parent commits suicide, it's more likely that you will kill yourself. It injects that into your life"
Anderson also spoke about what it was like growing up in a rich and famous house. His mother would entertain Hollywood legends like Charlie Chapman and renowned authors like Truman Capote.
Though, Cooper did admit that he was not a fan of Truman Capote, because his "toenails were disgusting."
