Kathy Griffin Details Her Falling Out with Anderson Cooper After Getting Booted from CNN New Year’s Show: ‘I Thought We Were Legit Friends’

Comedian Kathy Griffin revealed during a weekend interview that she still hasn’t mended fences with CNN’s Anderson Cooper after their falling out in 2017.

Griffin and Cooper’s rift stemmed from her controversial 2017 photoshoot that depicted the comedian posing with a severed head, looking eerily similar to then President Donald Trump. After the photo went viral, Griffin was boycotted by many brands and lost her hosting gig on CNN’s New Years Eve show alongside Cooper.

Back in 2017, Cooper called the photo “disgusting and completely inappropriate” on Twitter, which promptly ended the relationship between the pair.

Years after being taken off the show, Griffin — who was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2021 — told Bill Maher on the Club Random podcast that her relationship with Cooper is still nonexistent.

“I know you’ve been through all this shit with cancer… I’ve always thought cancer was bad and I don’t care who’s gonna argue with me. That’s my position. But I swear to God, I feel like it’s made you human a bet a better person,” Maher said.

“I think people can see me as a human being for the first time in a while. And I’ve just noticed a lot of people reaching out to me on social media just saying, ‘I didn’t like this about you. I don’t like that, but I’m wishing you well…'” Griffin said.

Maher noted that although Griffin was very successful in her field, she did “fight with too many people.”

“Like you’re still not friends with Anderson Cooper?” Maher asked.

“No, but that was like a little more of a friendship. Like, that was like kind of a personal thing because that was like a tough situation,” Griffin replied.

When asked if Griffin will “ever get over that with him?” she said it was a possibility.

“Sure. Of course,” Griffin said. “I don’t know that he’s interested. But I mean, you know, I also don’t have like a need to like, hang out with people that maybe weren’t so kosher.”

“But were you really friends with Anderson Cooper?” Maher asked.

“I thought so. I didn’t think we were Hollywood friends. I thought we were legit friends,” Griffin said explaining that their friendship was the type where you could “bare your souls to each other and you’re there for each other when this one’s having a tough day.”

Watch above via Club Random with Bill Maher.

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