May 13, 2020
Anderson Cooper: My Mom Knew My Son's Name Would Be Wyatt
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Anderson Cooper says that even though his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, died before he could tell her what he intended to name his son, he feels that she probably knew it already.
Cooper's son, Wyatt, was born April 27. Vanderbilt died in June of last year.
Cooper appeared on Andy Cohen's SiriusXM radio show "Andy Cohen Live," PageSix reported.
Recounted Cooper:
"I was able to tell her before she died, you know, that that I was going to have a son, and she was thrilled, and she had been wanting me to, you know, to have a kid for a long time."
Cooper went on to note that though his mother was 95 when she died, "she was the most modern and accepting person I think I've ever met... she was also the most youthful person I think I know, and so she was, you know, she was up for anything."
But though Cooper's revelation to Vanderbilt took place well before Wyatt's conception, and he had not chosen a name at that point, the out CNN anchor discussed his feeling that his mother would have intuited little Wyatt would share the same name as Cooper's father, who died in 1978, when Cooper was still a boy.
Cooper opened up recently about how his former partner, Benjamin Maisani, will be sharing parental duties with Cooper even though the two are no longer a couple, reported People Magazine.
That discussion took place on another SiriusXM program, "The Howard Stern Show," where the host asked Cooper about the unusual arrangement.
Explained Cooper:
"I don't really have a family, and so my friends become my family.
"This is somebody I was involved with for 10 years, he's a great guy."
Cooper recalled how, after his father died, he missed the influence of a second parent. Recalled the anchor: "...I wish some adult after my dad died had stepped in and just been like, 'You know what, I'll take you to a ball game.' "
Among the other advantages of co-parenting with Maisani is the chance for little Wyatt to grow up speaking French like a native, since that is the language that Maisani uses when talking to the infant.
