Anderson Cooper is wallowing in missing a major milestone for his son, but is embracing Father’s Day after years of avoiding the holiday.
The CNN anchor, whose son Wyatt was born via surrogate in May 2020, said he reacted “with fury” when his former partner Benjamin Maisani, witnessed their son’s first steps without him. Cooper and Maisani co-parent the 1-year-old.
“I was in Israel last week. It was my first work trip for ’60 Minutes’ and I was doing an interview and I get this text from Wyatt’s other dad, Benjamin, and he said, ‘He just walked!!'” Cooper recalled during Wednesday’s episode of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
“I was like, ‘I can’t believe I missed this and that I’m doing this interview in Israel of all places,” he said, adding that he would have preferred if Maisani had lied.
“I got really pissed at Benjamin,” Cooper said. “In my household when I grew up, you would lie about everything. He should have just lied. He should have lied and said, ‘Oh no, he’s not walking at all’ so when I got home and he walked, we’d be like, ‘Oh my god! It’s the first walk.’ “
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Cooper also reflected on the upcoming Father’s Day — a holiday he said he “avoided” ever since his dad died when he was 10.
“I just didn’t acknowledge (Father’s Day),” Cooper said. “Holidays and especially Father’s Day when you don’t have a dad is not even just bittersweet, it’s inexplicable. The pain was so great for most of my life I didn’t know Father’s Day was this date,” he said.
However, Cooper revealed that the “unexpected gift of being a father” offered him a newfound appreciation for the day.
“The interesting thing about having a child is it’s made me sort of connect with my dad and my mom’s past and my brother’s past in a way that I never really anticipated,” he said.
“I feel like I’m in communion with them in some strange way. I remember things about my dad that I never remembered before because I’m experiencing them with Wyatt as a dad.”
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In May 2020, Cooper announced live on-air that he welcomed a son.
“On Monday, I became a father,” Cooper said. “I’ve never actually said that before, and it still kind of astonishes me. I am a dad. I have a son and I want you to meet him.”
Cooper shared pictures of his newborn with viewers, revealing that his son’s moniker is a tribute to his late father, Wyatt Emory Cooper: “He’s named after my dad, who died when I was 10 years old. I hope I can be as good a dad as he was.”
Contributing: Cydney Henderson
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