Anderson Cooper received a surrogacy offer from someone very close to him — his mom.
“She was like, ‘The most amazing thing happened … [The gynecologist] told me I could still bear a child,’” he said on SiriusXM’s “The Howard Stern Show” on Tuesday, September 26. “I’m immediately thinking, ‘How do I stop my mom from bearing a child?’ Which is a thought I’m sure we’ve all had.”
The 60 Minutes correspondent, 56, explained that this conversation occurred eight years before he decided to become a father and while his mom was 85-years-old. His mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, died in 2019, just nine days following a stomach cancer diagnosis.
“I said, ‘Mom I just am not sure it’s a good idea for you, it’s very labor intensive, no pun intended,’” he shared. “‘Let’s see at 85, when the child is 20, you’ll be 105. The math on that is not very good, Mom.’”
Cooper continued: “But then she said … ‘What I was thinking was you get an egg, and you know, fertilize it with your sperm, and I’ll carry your child.’ I said, ‘Mom, I love you, but even for you this is bats–t crazy.’”
The CNN anchor and his ex-boyfriend, Benjamin Maisani, currently coparent two children whom they welcomed via surrogate. The pair were together for nine years before calling it quits in 2018, Us Weekly confirmed at the time.
During a May 2020 CNN Town Hall broadcast, Cooper announced he secretly welcomed his first child, son Wyatt Morgan Maisani-Cooper.
“I am grateful to a remarkable surrogate who carried Wyatt and watched over him lovingly, and tenderly, and gave birth to him,” he wrote via Instagram, alongside photos of the newborn. “It is an extraordinary blessing — what she, and all surrogates give to families who cant have children. My surrogate has a beautiful family of her own, a wonderfully supportive husband and kids, and I am incredibly thankful for all the support they have given Wyatt and me. My family is blessed to have this family in our lives.”
After his son’s arrival, he asked Maisani, 50, to coparent Wyatt and Maisani underwent the process to legally adopt the child. The pair later welcomed another son, Sebastian Luke Maisani-Cooper, in February 2022.
“I’ve got two kids who I can’t imagine not spending every minute with, and I’m working all the time,” Cooper said on Tuesday. “I’m happy.”
