Prince Harry and Anderson Cooper's shared grief ahead of bombshell CBS interview

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Prince Harry and Anderson Cooper
Prince Harry and Anderson Cooper's shared grief ahead of bombshell CBS interview

Prince Harry's interview with American journalist Anderson Cooper is set to air tonight on CBS, ahead of the release of Harry's explosive memoir Spare.

Trailers for the Duke of Sussex's discussion with the CNN heavyweight, which will follow Harry's ITV interview, promise more bombshells, as they talk about the "leaking and planting of stories" against the prince and his now wife Meghan Markle.

Harry, 38, and Anderson, 55, have been marked by tragedies in their lives, with both losing parents at around the same age. They also both come from immense privilege, but it has not shielded them from loss.

Prince Harry and Anderson Cooper's shared grief ahead of bombshell CBS interview qhiqqkiqztidruinvPrince Harry with US TV interviewer Anderson Cooper (CBS News)

On his mother's side, Anderson hails from a notable New York City family, the Vanderbilts, who gained prominence during the Gilded age after becoming successful through the shipping and railroad empires of Cornelius Vanderbilt.

When he was ten, Anderson's dad, writer Wyatt Emory Cooper, died during open heart surgery in 1978, aged 50.

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His dad, Anderson said, "gave me the sense that I had value, that my ideas mattered,

"That instilled in me a confidence I don't think I would have otherwise had."

Prince Harry and Anderson Cooper's shared grief ahead of bombshell CBS interviewAnderson (left) in 1976 with his mother Gloria and his brother Carter (Getty Images)

He added: "I used to think that was old, but now that I'm 48, 50 seems pretty young."

Prince Harry was only 12 when his mother, Princess Diana, died after a car crash in 1997, aged 36.

In 1988, Anderson's 23-year-old brother Carter took his own life when he jumped from the family's penthouse apartment, in front of his mother, Gloria.

In 2016, Anderson spoke about the impact of loss on him, saying: "Loss changes you. Particularly when you lose a parent at a young age. The world suddenly seems a much different place. More dangerous."

The person I was before my father's death, the person I was meant to be was far more open, more interesting than the person I've become," Cooper said.

He said "I wish it wasn't so. But the self-reliance I learned has also served me well."

In November, he spoke about the toll his older brother's death played on his mother, who died in 2019 aged 95, saying she "relived it constantly."

In an interview with Christiane Amanpour, Anderson said: "She relived it constantly. She replayed it in her head every single day of her life for the rest of her life."

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Prince Harry and Anderson Cooper's shared grief ahead of bombshell CBS interviewAnderson (front), Carter and Gloria attend a premiere in 1979 (Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
Prince Harry and Anderson Cooper's shared grief ahead of bombshell CBS interviewAnderson has been open about the impact of grief on him and his mother (Heidi Gutman/Bravo via Getty Images)

He described how his mother would question if she could have done anything differently to prevent the tragedy.

"My mom, until the day she died, she would out of the blue say to me, "Maybe if I had grabbed an iron from the fireplace and hit Carter, it would have knocked him out, and maybe that would have stopped him. I could have stopped him from going to the balcony,'" he said.

"She could never get to a place where she could accept the death, but she got to a place where she could continue to live."

Prince Harry's CBS 60 Minutes interview airs at 12.30am UK time, following his ITV interview with Tom Brady, at 9pm.

The CBS interview will also be available on ITVX from tomorrow afternoon.

Katherine Heslop

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