CNN anchor Anderson Cooper (via Instagram)Out CNN anchor Anderson Cooper Zoomed into Howard Sterns’ radio show this week to chat on the news of Cooper’s new son, Wyatt, who was born on April 27.
Along with the ‘proud dad’ announcement, Cooper has publicly shared that his ex-boyfriend, Benjamin Maisani, will co-parent Wyatt.
Since the couple broke up over two years ago, the news surprised some folks.
So, Howard went right to it asking: “Don’t you want a clean break from this guy?”
Anderson Cooper and Benjamin Maisani (via Instagram)Cooper’s response was both moving and disarmingly candid.
“I don’t really have a family, so my friends become my family,” said the 52-year-old journalist. “And this is somebody that I was involved with for 10 years. He’s a great guy.”
“We didn’t work out as a couple, but when I was a little kid, it was just my mom and my brother,” he continued. “But it was my mom and she was not the most parental person.”
Cooper’s mother was acclaimed artist, fashion designer and socialite Gloria Vanderbilt, who passed away last summer at the age of 95. His father, Wyatt Emory Cooper, died in 1978 when Anderson was just 10-years-old.
His brother, Carter, died after committing suicide ten years later in 1988.
“I wish some adult, after my dad died, had stepped in, and just been like, you know what? I’ll take you to a ball game, or let’s go out to lunch every now and then, and let’s just talk,” he shared. “No one ever did that.”
“And so I thought, if something happens to me – or even if something doesn’t happen to me – if more people love my son and are in his life, I’m all for that,” he said. “My ex is a great guy and it’s good to have two parents if you can.”
Considering the two-parent status, Sterns asked, “Are you both going to be ‘dad?’”
“Well, my ex is French, his name is Benjamin, so he’s going to speak to him in French and he’s going to be like, ‘papa,’” explained Cooper. “And I think I’ll be ‘dad’ or ‘daddy.’”
“He’s already speaking French to him, I have no idea what he’s saying,” he added before joking, “He could be turning the kid against me, I don’t know.”
I’ll say I completely understand Anderson’s thinking, and he knows he can trust Benjamin. Good on him.