After awkward New Year’s segue, Anderson Cooper, Andy Cohen honor Gloria Vanderbilt

Andy Cohen, left, and Anderson Cooper, seen at a Ralph Lauren fashion show in 2018, shared an awkward, touching and risque moment as they honored Cooper's mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, who died in June, during CNN's New Year's Eve broadcast Tuesday. (Photo: Rob Kim, Getty Images)

During Tuesday’s New Year’s Eve festivities on CNN, hosts Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen offered a sweet tribute to Cooper’s mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, bookended by an awkward opening transition and a risque anecdote.

It’s Cooper’s first holiday season without his mother, a fashion icon and socialite who died in June at the age of 95, and the news anchor also acknowledged viewers who are dealing with the loss of loved ones.

The Vanderbilt conversation started abruptly. After the pair chatted about Cohen’s son, Benjamin, being named People’s “Cutest Baby Alive” and a funny video showed late-night host Conan O’Brien mocking Cooper’s attempt at growing a beard, the camera shifted back to New York’s Times Square where Cohen shifted the conversation as Cooper was still laughing.

“I want to send my condolences to you, of course. Your mom passed away this year,” Cohen said. 

Anderson Cooper, left, and his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, attend the 2016 premiere of "Nothing Left Unsaid," a documentary that featured conversations between the pair. (Photo: Roy Rochlin, FilmMagic)

Cooper seemed taken aback by the swift change in tone: “You’re sending me condolences now!”

Cohen, a bit chagrined, replied: “I’m trying to think of a transition so I can bring it up. I don’t know how to bring it up.” 

“I appreciate it. Thank you very much. Yes. Yeah,” Cooper responded, as both briefly went quiet.

“Awkward moments!” Cohen then said loudly, as the two friends shifted into a loving remembrance of the CNN anchor’s mother. “I loved your mom,” Cohen said. 

Fashion icon: Gloria Vanderbilt dead at age 95: ‘What an extraordinary woman,’ son Anderson Cooper says

Cooper said Cohen was great with his mother and then transitioned into a ribald story about a time he prepped Vanderbilt to be interviewed by Cohen, advising he might ask her about anything. He said he was shocked when his mother wondered whether Cohen might ask about anatomical specifics of Hollywood leading men, although Cooper used a cruder term. (Later in the broadcast, after receiving a text from a friend regarding the comment, Cooper said, “Maybe I went too far.”)

Andy Cohen hosts "Watch What Happens Live" on Bravo. (Photo: Charlie Sykes/Bravo Media)

They brought up that story with Vanderbilt when Cohen, wearing a St. Louis Blues jersey and fresh from the team’s Stanley Cup victory over the Boston Bruins, paid a visit to her during her final days in June.

“It’s like he’s conducting a game show with my mom. My mom said, ‘I never said that,'” but she offered more details once Cohen persuaded her that she had, Cooper said, as both men laughed heartily at the shared memory.

At that point, the conversation shifted again, as Cooper related his situation to others going through the holidays for the first time without a family member. He also touched on the loss of his father, Wyatt Emory Cooper, who died on Jan. 5, 1978, when Anderson was just 10.

“Everybody loves the holidays and people are happy and it’s great, but for a lot of people, holidays are really hard” after the loss of a loved one, he said. “For me, New Year’s Eve has always been really hard. Honestly, it’s why I started volunteering to work on New Year’s Eve, because it made me sad every year because my dad died on Jan. 5 when I was 10 and it just reminds me so much of that moment.” 

Talking to the camera, he said: “There’s a lot of folks watching tonight who are home, maybe they’re alone, maybe they’re hanging out with a loved one, maybe with their pet and watching us and I just want people to know I and Andy are thinking about everybody for whom tonight is difficult,” he said. “It’s not really talked about much. It makes people feel uncomfortable. It’s probably awkward right now for my friend, Andy.”

“No,” Cohen chimed in. “I think it is important. It can be a very lonely night for people. And that’s why we’re here. We’re all just hanging out and we’ll all get through it together.”

During an eveningn full of merriment and a program that occasionally veered into silliness, it was a short, sweet and moving moment.

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