Anderson Cooper Talks Brother's Suicide and Russell Armstrong

Anderson Cooper Shares Memory Of Brother's Suicide

As Anderson Cooper gears up to begin work on his new daytime syndicated talk show, simply titled Anderson, he opens up about his own brother's suicide and talks about Russell Armstrong's tragic death.

"I had a brother that committed suicide and that was more than 20 years ago and I'm still trying to figure out why he committed suicide," says the silver-haired host. "I think anyone who survives suicide, that's one of the horrible things about it, you can't pinpoint one thing necessarily always that did it."

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Cooper's brother was just 23 when he leapt from a 14th floor New York City penthouse to end his life in 1988.

"You can't put yourself in someone else's mind -- a mind that is not acting rationally or not thinking rationally."

The topic came up because Anderson's first guests included the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, and with Russell Armstrong's suicide still fresh on everyone's mind, the subject will consume most of the cast's appearance on the program. 

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Cooper insists that the Housewives were booked for the show prior to Armstrong's death and even he was surprised when the women made good on their commitment.

"I thought frankly they were going to cancel, and they didnt," he said.

While Cooper never knew Armstrong, he speculated as to why the businessman chose to take his own life.

"I think there's other aspects to Russell's life which really weren't talked about on the show at all, but are clearly part of what happened," says Cooper. "I think his business life was in disarray, he was deeply in debt, he was being sued, he had already pleaded guilty to fraud charges years ago."

Anderson premieres on Monday, September 12.