Kathy Griffin weathered an immense backlash after she posed for a photoshoot with a bloodied Donald Trump mask, losing an annual CNN hosting gig and, apparently, her years-long friendship with Anderson Cooper.
In a profile published by New York magazine’s The Cut on Monday, the comedian admits that she ended her personal relationship with Cooper after he failed to come to her support in the days following the uproar over the photo. According to the piece, Cooper didn’t reach out to check in on her until months later, at which point “she told him their friendship was over.”
“For the record, I am appalled by the photo shoot Kathy Griffin took part in. It is clearly disgusting and completely inappropriate,” Cooper tweeted in May, denouncing his friend and the woman with whom he co-hosted CNN’s New Year’s
In the following weeks, Griffin was dropped by CNN who called the stunt “disgusting and offensive” and found herself the subject of a Secret Service investigation. At the time, Cooper publicly said the two were still friends despite his tweet.
“Yeah, we’re still friends, and look I said what I said about — I didn’t think what she said was appropriate, but I wish her the best and I hope she bounces back,” he told Andy Cohen on Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Live.”
Griffin publicly apologized for the photo after it was met with a flood of criticism, but the comedian told The Cut that she doesn’t plan apologizing directly to the president or his family.
“President Trump just pardoned Joe Arpaio, who was essentially running a concentration camp in the Arizona desert,” she said. “He said there are some good Nazis, and he’s kicking out young adults who were brought here as kids by their parents, and I’m the one who has to continue to apologize?”