Anderson Cooper has explained his decision to co-parent his son with his ex-partner Benjamin Maisani, stating: “If more people love my son and are in his life, I’m all for that.”
Cooper recently shared on Instagram that his son, Wyatt Cooper, was born on Monday 27 April via surrogate.
The CNN anchor shared several pictures of the newborn on social media, revealing in the caption that the baby was named after his father, who died when Cooper was 10 years old.
During an interview on SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show on Tuesday 12 May, the television presenter explained why he decided to co-parent Wyatt with his ex-partner Benjamin Maisani.
Cooper and Maisani were together for 10 years before separating in 2018.
“I don’t really have a family, so my friends have become my family,” Cooper said.
“This is somebody I was involved with for 10 years. He’s a great guy.”
Cooper explained that he grew up in a household with his mother and brother after his father passed away, recalling that his mother “was not the most parental person”.
“And I wish some adult after my dad died had stepped in and just been like do you know what, I’ll take you to a ball game, let’s go out to lunch every now and then and let’s just talk. No one ever did that,” he stated.
Therefore, Cooper came to the conclusion that “if more people love my son and are in his life, I’m all for that.”
“My ex is a great guy, and I think it’s good to have two parents if you can,” he said.
When asked whether Wyatt will refer to both Cooper and Maisani as “dad”, the CNN anchor explained that Maisani’s moniker may differ because he is French.
“My ex is French, so he’s going to speak in French to the kid, and he’s going to be I think like ‘papa’, or ‘pap’ or whatever and I think I’ll be ‘dad’, ‘daddy’,” the 52-year-old said.
Cooper added that Maisani is already speaking French to the baby, although he has “no idea what he’s saying”.
“He could be turning the kid against me, I don’t know,” he joked.
