Anderson Cooper remembers Anthony Bourdain: 'He loved and was loved in return'
CNN's Anthony Bourdain and star of "Parts Unknown" was honored by his CNN colleagues during the network’s hour-long memoriam, Remembering Anthony Bourdain, on Friday evening.
His longtime friends and coworkers, including Don Lemon, Christiane Amanpour and Wolf Blitzer, paid tribute to the Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown host who died at the age of 61 of an apparent suicide in France.
Anderson Cooper also appeared on the special, choking up as he expressed “shock, confusion and sadness that a man who was seemingly having the ride of his life in the middle of his life has now suddenly reached the end of his life.”
Cooper, who also dedicated his entire 8 p.m. Anderon Cooper 360 broadcast to Bourdain, added, “He loved and was loved in return.”
“Honestly, talking about him in the past tense it’s, it’s really — yeah, it’s really hard to — hard to imagine,” he said as he held back tears.
“I mean, you never know what goes on in anybody’s head, you never really know what goes on in anybody’s heart,” continued Cooper, whose brother Carter died by suicide at age 23 in 1988.
“But certainly, you know, the pain he must have been feeling, at least in that moment or in those moments, and the loneliness he must be feeling it’s just terribly sad to think about. And makes me very sad for him to have — to have a succumbed to that,” he shared.
Cooper also told viewers, “He gave me hope for what one’s life can become, can be at 61.”
New Day co-anchor John Berman also told viewers at the beginning of the special tribute that many at CNN received the news in the early morning hours as Berman said he found out about Bourdain’s death at 4:45 a.m.
During Friday’s salute, Newsroom host Brooke Baldwin broke down in tears as she said, “Losing Tony was losing a member of our family, our CNN family.”
Also Read: Celebrity chef and CNN food critic, Anthony Bourdain commits suicide
First published: 9 June 2018, 13:04 IST