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Gloria Vanderbilt ‘Nothing Left Unsaid’ Documentary Fails To Explain 40-Year Estrangement From Son Chris Stokowski

By Victoria Miller
Published on: 22:47 PST, Apr 9, 2016

Gloria Vanderbilt still has a few things left unsaid. The life of the 92-year-old designer, artist, and heiress is the subject of the new documentary Nothing Left Unsaid, but the film fails to explain Vanderbilt’s decades-long estrangement from her son, Chris Stokowski.

The Gloria Vanderbilt movie goes into great detail about her relationships with sons Anderson Cooper and her late son, Carter Cooper, but Gloria’s son, Chris, is barely mentioned, and their estrangement isn’t explained at all. According to Page Six, Chris Stokowski is Gloria Vanderbilt’s son with conductor Leopold Stokowski, and he cut himself off from Gloria and her family nearly 40 years ago, when he was just 26-years-old, after a bizarre incident involving Vanderbilt’s shrink.

Chris Stokowski reportedly stopped speaking to his mother in 1978 after Gloria Vanderbilt’s psychiatrist at the time, Dr. Christ L. Zois, allegedly interfered with his relationship with his then-fiancée, April Sandmeyer. Gloria Vanderbilt eventually won a $1.5 million judgment against Zois and a lawyer she had accused of “preying on her wealth and emotional fragility,” but the suit and her fractured relationship with her son are not mentioned in the movie.

Sandmeyer told Page Six that Vanderbilt probably didn’t mention her estrangement from Chris out of respect for him.

“She was his best friend. They were a really loving family… Everyone treated each other well and with respect. It’s probably painful, but as a mother, I think she respects [Chris’] privacy and [not mentioning him] is out of love for him. She knows he doesn’t want to be in the public eye. He doesn’t want the public’s attention.”

But much mystery still surrounds the details regarding Gloria and Chris’s estrangement. Decades later, Sandmeyer refuses to explain what exactly happened with Dr. Zois, but she says Gloria Vanderbilt’s relationship with her former therapist was far from normal.

“I was just horrified. I can’t reveal [what happened]. It’s very sad and it’s very horrible and it has a lot to do with [the doctor]… [Chris] started to become estranged after the incident. I won’t divulge anything more. It’s a sensitive topic. [Zois’] relationship with [Vanderbilt]… wasn’t a normal doctor-patient relationship. She was too much under his influence.”

According to the Daily Mail, Gloria Vanderbilt’s son, Anderson, was very close with his half-brother, despite the fact that Chris is 15 years older than him. But Cooper’s recent remarks about receiving inheritance money from his mother could be seen at a jab at Stokowski. Cooper, a self-made millionaire himself thanks to his lucrative career as a news journalist for CNN, said he doesn’t believe in inheriting money, and he calls it “an imitative sucker” and a “curse.” At age 64, Chris Stokowski reportedly lives off the estate of late father Leopold Stokowski, and is a recluse.

Gloria Vanderbilt had four children from two of her four marriages. In addition to Anderson and Carter (from her marriage to Wyatt Cooper), Gloria had sons Stan and Chris with Leopold Stokowski. Gloria remains close with Stan Stokowski and his children.

While Chris Stokowski is glossed over in the new Nothing Left Unsaid documentary, he wasn’t mentioned in Gloria Vanderbilt’s 1996 memoir A Mother’s Story either. But in her new book, The Rainbow Comes and Goes: A Mother and Son on Life, Love, and Loss, Vanderbilt does name Chris when she writes that her four sons were her greatest joy.

“Being a mother wasn’t what I expected at all … Little did I know that you, Carter, Stan and Chris would be the greatest joys of my life.”

In a 1996 interview with People, Gloria Vanderbilt’s only comment about her son, Chris, was that he “keeps a very low profile.” And 20 years later, that still seems to be the case.

Take a look at the video below for more on the Gloria Vanderbilt documentary Nothing Left Unsaid. The film is currently airing on HBO.

[Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images]

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