Gloria Vanderbilt, the American fashion icon, artist, actress, author, fashion icon and socialite, dies at 95. She was thrust into the spotlight as a child-heiress nicknamed “the poor little rich game”.

Vanderbilt also became renowned as the pioneer of designer jeans of the 1970s and ’80s, an author and artist. The brand began with Gloria Vanderbilt Jeans. It later branched into other clothing items, perfume and home goods, earning her millions in her own right.

Her son, CNN’s Anderson Cooper, confirmed her death on Monday. Cooper confirmed Vanderbilt died at her Manhattan home with friends and family at her side. They initially learned she had advanced stomach cancer earlier this month, he noted.

“Gloria Vanderbilt was an extraordinary woman, who loved life, and lived it on her own terms,” Cooper said on an on-air eulogy that aired Monday morning on CNN. “She was a painter, a writer, and designer but also a remarkable mother, wife, and friend. She was 95 years old, but ask anyone close to her, and they’d tell you, she was the youngest person they knew, the coolest, and most modern.”

He added, “She spent a lot of time alone in her head during her life, but when the end came she was not alone. She was surrounded by beauty and by family and by friends.”

While the on-air eulogy was aired, Cooper played a recorded video of his mother giggling while they were together in the hospital.

He noted, “I never knew that we had the same exact giggle. I recorded it, and it makes me giggle every time I watch it,” he said. “What an extraordinary life. What an extraordinary mom,” He concluded with, “What an incredible woman.”

The life of Gloria Vanderbilt

During her 95 years, she lived an extraordinary life and was always in the centre of the press. She became the frontier of the press interest as a child in the midst of a custody battle.

This occurred after the death of her father, financier Reginald Vanderbilt, the heir to a railroad fortune. He was an alcoholic who had been battling liver cancer and gambling.

After his death, she became caught in an intense custody battle between her mother and her father’s wealthy sister, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. This took place for long enough for her to become the frontier for the press and the “poor little rich kid” with a $5 million trust fund. Her aunt eventually won custody of her.

Vanderbilt also engaged in a string of high-profile relationships which began when she was just a teen. She also began modelling at an early age and was photographed for Harper’s Bazaar at 16. This was the start of many appearances as a model for her.

“As a teenager, she tried to avoid the spotlight, but reporters and cameramen followed her everywhere,” her son Anderson Cooper said. “She was determined to make something of her life, determined to make a name for herself, and find the love she so desperately needed.”

Gloria Vanderbilt was also involved in multiple marriages as well but began her first at age 17.

Against her aunt’s wish, she married Hollywood agent Pat DiCicco in 1941. This caused her aunt to disown her, but she went ahead to marry him.

After a few years, she revealed she had gone through emotional and physical abuse in her marriage. Two months after taking control of a $4.3 million trust fund her father had left her at 21, she divorced DiCicco. Vanderbilt went on to marry a conductor, Leopold Stokowski. Stokowski was 63 when she got married to him.

She would, later on, admit in an interview with her son, Cooper, “I knew him for a week and married three weeks later.”

Vanderbilt went on to marry two other men after that and had four sons overall. Unfortunately, she witnessed the suicide of one of her sons when he was 23.

Cooper says in an HBO documentary “Nothing Left Unsaid”:

“My mom has lived many different lives and has inhabited many different skins. She has this public face, but the reality of her life is so different than what the public face is.”