Anderson Cooper was able to tell his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, that he was having a baby before her death last year. The AC360° host, whose son Wyatt Morgan Cooper was born on April 27, revealed that she had always wanted him to become a father.
Cooper called in to SiriusXM’s Andy Cohen Live on Monday and was asked by a listener what Vanderbilt would think about Cooper becoming a dad in an “unconventional way.” (The CNN anchor announced “a remarkable surrogate” gave birth to his son.)
“Considering your mother comes from a different era, how do you think she would take or handle you becoming a father in an unconventional way? She comes from a completely different era,” a woman asked Cooper.
“I was able to tell her before she died that I was going to have a son and she was thrilled,” Cooper replied. “She had been wanting me to have a kid for a long time.”
Vanderbilt died in June 2019 at age 95. The heiress and designer had been suffering from advanced stomach cancer.
“My mom was definitely from a different era and a different world, but she was the most modern and accepting person I think I’ve ever met,” Cooper, 52, continued. “Even at 95, she was also the most youthful person I think I know. She was up for anything. She wanted me to have a kid and she felt I would be a great dad.”
Cooper added, “I think she would be amazed and thrilled to meet Wyatt and I hope she can see him.”
While the journalist didn’t get a chance to tell Vanderbilt his son’s name would be Wyatt, he said she wouldn’t be surprised about the moniker. Cooper named his boy after his father, who died when he was 10. Wyatt’s middle name Morgan is a family name on his mom’s side. The caller also asked about Cooper’s first Mother’s Day, which he said was “bittersweet.”
“For me, it was the first Mother’s Day without my mom so it’s bittersweet obviously,” he noted. “Anniversaries are always difficult, especially the first one after somebody has died.”
Andy Cohen, who welcomed son Ben via surrogate last year, asked Cooper if he heard from anyone surprising after sharing the baby news.
“Yeah, I mean I got direct messages from people who are well known,” Cooper replied, playing coy at first when asked for names. He did share that he “got a call from Elton John.”
Apparently, Cohen did too.
“You know he sent me — he sent Ben, like, this Gucci shirt and Gucci shorts and I was like — how cool! I’ve met Elton John once,” Cohen revealed. “So, maybe he is kind of welcoming us into the gay dads club.”
“He’s paved the way in a lot of different ways,” Cooper said. “It was lovely, it was really cool.”
