Heaven & Earth: The Somewhere Under Heaven Series

60 Minutes: Part I

The 60 Minutes piece

Segment into after the stopwatch

Scott Pelley: Close to three months ago, the affluent suburb of Lawrence Township, NJ was rocked when gunshots rang out in the parking lot of a local shopping mall, killing a university student. The victim was identified Ashton Shane Pattinson, the 20-year-old son of actor Robert Pattinson. While a lot has been said about the shooting and tabloid reports swirled, the family kept quiet. That is until now.

For the first time, Robert Pattinson has broken his silence and he's talking to 60 Minutes in about family, life, and how they are trying to pick up the pieces. Here is Anderson Cooper with this rare interview from one of Hollywood's most unique and sometimes reclusive stars.

Title Card: Life of Pattinson

VO by Anderson Cooper (with video & photos): It was the classic "boy meets girl at a photoshoot" story. The girl in this story is Casey Kelly, an up and coming photographer and filmmaker from New Jersey who was asked by a college friend to help out with a photoshoot for Christian Dior. And the boy in our story? One of Dior's biggest names, actor Robert Pattinson. They became close after Casey became the sole photographer for his campaigns, started a production company and fell in love year later. Seven months after their first kiss, they were married and they moved to England only to return after Casey was tapped to teach classes at Moore College of Art & Design, Bucks County Community College, and Rider University. She would also receive a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania and give birth to the couple's two biological children. 

They moved to London where they had twins and after a few years and an offer that Casey couldn't refuse from a friend who works in education, the couple moved to Princeton where they had one more daughter, Loralei who sadly died five weeks after she was born due to a heart defect. They would march on raising their twins, Ashton who was a shy kid that loved soccer and giving back and Katherine who at 14 became one of the youngest filmmakers to win an award at the Sundance Film Festival for her documentary, Somewhere Under Heaven which took a candid look at her battle with leukemia. A few years later, the family added on with adopting two boys, Jaxon and Dion but then the unthinkable happened.

Tragedy struck in late March when 19-year-old Ashton was in a car accident with his former girlfriend on the way home from a formal dance when she was killed. A few weeks later, the ex-girlfriend's father, Stephen Malone would then shoot and kill Ashton in the parking lot of a shopping mall in Lawrence Township, NJ. The Pattinson family has stayed mostly under the radar and made very sparse statements to the media until now.

Cut to video of Rob & the kids with Anderson

In a very rare interview, Robert Pattinson opens up about the rumors regarding Ashton, the tragedy, and the family as a whole. Joined by Katherine and her brothers, I meet up with this unique family at their vacation home along the New Jersey coast.

Cut to interview

Anderson: Describe to me what Ashton was like.

Rob: Anderson, what can I say? Ashton was one in a million. He was the kid who would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it. Everyone called him Ash and he would do the stuff that was rather unorthodox for a kid who grew up in a wealthy family. An example of that was actually a part-time job he took at a family friend's diner. He did it not because it was expected of him but because he wanted to.