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

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

During the Tuesday, Dec. 31, broadcast of New Year’s Eve Live with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen on 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.

“There’s a lot of folks who are watching tonight who may not be out at some party … you might be alone or just with somebody else you love in your room or just by yourself,” he began.

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.”

Cooper’s father died of surgical complications. In a 2023 essay for CNN, Cooper said that despite experiencing multiple significant losses in his lifetime he “never really grieved” until  he devoted an entire season of his All There Is podcast to grief.  

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The 60 Minutes correspondent 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 hosting New Year’s Live since 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 and all 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.”