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Anderson Cooper says being a parent to his two young sons has given him “the best time of my life.”
The CNN anchor and author recently spoke with People about his family — sons Wyatt Morgan, 3, and Sebastian Luke, 19 months, and ex-partner and co-parent Benjamin Maisani. They share homes in New York City and Connecticut.
Family life gives Cooper “moments of such bliss, humor and gentleness and sheer delight that it stuns me,” he said.
In Connecticut, he noted, “We have the diner we go to every morning — they like the folks who run the diner very much. And they love to swim. I love getting them ready for their afternoon nap and sitting with them and reading and then having them fall asleep in my arms. There’s nothing better.”
The boys get along well and play with some of Cooper’s childhood toys. “Just to see their relationship, it’s incredible,” he told People. “I recently found wooden blocks that my brother and I played with. We drew robots on them and stuff. And so now to see Wyatt playing with those and building things, it’s crazy.”
His co-parenting arrangement with Maisani is “very natural,” he said. “I work nights, and so he’s there at night,” Cooper said. “And we both wake up right before they wake up, get them their milk and spend the first couple of hours of the day just us with them. And Benjamin speaks French to them. I have no idea what they’re saying. I think they’re plotting against me.”
Being a father has helped Cooper work through the grief over losses in his life. His dad, writer Wyatt Cooper, died in 1978, when Anderson was 10. His older brother, Carter, died by suicide at age 23 in 1988. His mother, socialite and designer Gloria Vanderbilt, died in 2019 at age 95.
While the Vanderbilts were once one of the nation’s wealthiest families, there wasn’t a fortune waiting for Cooper, and his father made clear to him the importance of earning a living. “That set me out very early on a course of wanting to work and find out what I was passionate about,” he said. “I want my kids to figure out what drives them, and I want to help them figure that out.”
Cooper will have a new book out next week about another family that made and lost millions. Astor: The Rise and Fall of an American Fortune will be available Tuesday.
The full Cooper interview will be in the issue of People that hits newsstands Friday. And check out the images below of Cooper being a dad.
