Life as a working parent can be challenging, even when you’re as successful as Anderson Cooper.
During an appearance on “The Late Show” Wednesday, the CNN anchor lamented having missed a milestone in the life of his 1-year-old son, Wyatt Morgan, because he was in Israel for work.
“It was my first work trip for ‘60 Minutes’ and I was doing an interview,” he told host Stephen Colbert. “And I get this text from Wyatt’s other dad, Benjamin [Maisani], and he said, ‘He just walked!’”
Many new parents might have been thrilled with the news, but Cooper joked, “My reaction was fury.”
“I got really pissed at Benjamin,” he added. “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!’”
At that point, Colbert cheekily interjected, “Missing your child’s first walk proves you are a father.”
Upon welcoming Wyatt in April 2020, Cooper revealed he would be raising his son with Maisani, a New York nightlife entrepreneur. The couple split in 2018 after nearly a decade together.
When Howard Stern asked him about the unusual arrangement, Cooper said, “My ex is a great guy, and it’s good to have two parents if you can.”
“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 added.
In his chat with Colbert this week, Cooper said he was excited to celebrate his second Father’s Day as a dad ― a holiday he’d avoided after losing his father, also named Wyatt, when he was 10.
Becoming a father himself, he said, has made him feel “in communion” with his own dad.
“I remember things about my dad that I never remembered before because I’m experiencing them with Wyatt as a dad,” he said. “It’s really interesting.”
Watch Anderson Cooper’s appearance on “The Late Show” below.
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