Our first guest is an Emmy and Peabody
award winning journalist, but most importantly, he's
a brand new daddy.
Please welcome Anderson Cooper.
Hey, how's it going?
Woo!
Yay!
Anderson Cooper, yay!
Good.
How are you, Anderson?
I am great.
I'm sort of blissfully happy.
Yeah, I'm great.
I can't stop smiling.
Yeah.
You did, you know, a lot of people
are rescuing, adopting puppies during this time,
and you decided no, I'm going to get myself a baby.
Yeah, the shelter was all out of puppies,
so I took the extra step.
Yeah.
No, I knew I wanted to have a family of my own
forever and have kids.
I love kids, and yeah, I never thought it'd be possible,
and it's just yeah, it's just incredible.
I apologize, I actually, he just like burped up on me,
and I just noticed that I have a stain of milk on my shirt,
so sorry.
I should've changed.
That's all right.
I barely see it, and everything is allowed during this time.
There it is.
Yep, it's Wyatt's DNA.
There's one over here, yeah.
So anyway.
So this is interesting.
Obviously that you've been planning
this for at least nine months, but the timing
of this that it happened during this is crazy,
but then it's also in a way beautiful,
because you get to be home with him all the time now.
It is.
Yeah, I mean, it's extraordinary.
And you know, I actually was going into work up until about
a week, about a couple days before he was born,
so I was still going to my office.
I was pretty much kind of one of the only people in the office,
because everybody else was working from home.
But yeah, but now I'm working from home,
and it's just amazing.
I mean, it's been--
to spend, I spend hours.
You know how sometimes like, I don't know, in the past
I'd be on Instagram, and suddenly like hours
would go by and be like, oh my God,
I'm never going to get those hours of my life back.
I don't even check that anymore.
I just like stare at him, and I can watch him for hours,
and hours, and hours, do nothing, and it's amazing.
Aww, that's really sweet.
I know.
I bet.
I'm sure.
And especially when he smiles like that,
you wonder like, what--
they say it's gas, but it can't be.
There must be something in that little head.
I don't know.
I mean, he definitely is dreaming,
because he goes through a whole range of emotions on his face
while he's sleeping.
It's really, I mean, it's better than Netflix.
It's better than, like there's no point in streaming,
I can just sit there and stream him.
I just watch him all the time.
And now I have like a monitor where
I can watch him on my phone, which is just obsessive.
Yeah.
I get it.
I totally get it.
I mean, I feel like that about my dogs and my cats,
so I'm sure a human thing is actually
probably more interesting.
But--
Well, your dogs and cats are probably doing more.
Right now, he's just kind of sleeping, and pooping,
and eating, but it's pretty fun.
But then every single day, and I know Andy Cohen is your friend,
so you probably have been watching his baby, you know,
change every single day.
And that's the beauty is that every single day there's
a new little thing.
Yeah, I mean he's, you know, he's not even a month old.
I mean, he's just a little bit more than a week
old or two weeks old, and yeah.
He's already changed so much, and like
he got a little baby acne today, and I didn't even
know that was the thing.
I had to Google it, and apparently it is a thing,
and it goes away, but yeah.
Every day is different.
And like he's already focusing more his eyes,
and it's yeah, so extraordinary.
I mean, I know everybody always says this
and how it changes everything, and I hate to be so cliche,
but it's yeah.
It's just astonishing.
That's the word I keep using, astonishing.
I'm completely astonished.
I'm so happy for you, and I'm going
to send you some Proactiv.
[LAUGHTER]
That'll clear that right up.
I hear, I think it's a little [INAUDIBLE] maybe,
but you know.
Well, I don't know.
Not really.
[LAUGHTER]
So this is kind of a silly question,
because I think I know the answer,
but bringing a baby into the world during this time.
Well, I'll let you just say what you think.
You know, it's scary.
I mean, look, I certainly didn't plan, you know,
who knew that there would be this pandemic at this time,
and obviously, you know, I've actually
reported about pandemics for quite a long time.
You know, years, and years, and years ago,
and years before this, so obviously it's
always a possibility and something that we should've
been better prepared for, but you know, it is what it is,
and people throughout millennia have raised kids
in difficult times, in difficult circumstances,
and you know, I think life continues.
And even when there is sadness and suffering,
there is also joy and beauty.
And I think it's important to be able to recognize both and live
in a world that has both of those extremes
and to be able to function in that world, and you know,
my mom died this past June.
Yeah.
Sorry about that.
Yeah, but in, you know, in one year
to have this incredible juxtaposition of my mom's life
ending and and, you know, her grandson's life beginning,
it's just extraordinary.
And that's what, so Wyatt the name comes from your family,
right?
Yeah.
Tell me the whole--
Yeah, so my dad's name was Wyatt Cooper,
and he was from Mississippi, grew up poor on a farm,
and he died when I was 10 years old,
but he was an incredible parent and very,
I mean, he always wanted to have kids,
and he wrote a book actually about my family and his family
in the south, and he wrote it as sort of a letter
to my brother and I, because I think
he kind of knew he might not be around,
because he had heart disease.
And so that letter has sort of been like a guidepost for me
for much my life.
I read it probably once or twice a year I read that book.
So I always knew if I had a son, I would name from Wyatt,
and Morgan is Wyatt's middle name,
and that is my mom's grandmother's married name.
My mom's mom's, my grandmother's, maiden name.
And so I wanted something from my mom and yeah.
And Morgan, also I found--
I've been going through my mom's stuff
and organizing it in boxes over this past couple months--
and I found this list, a handwritten list in pencil
that she and my dad had made of possible names for me
before I was born, and Morgan was on the list,
so I knew that they liked that name.
So I thought, OK, let's do that.
That's great.
That's a great name too.
Wyatt Morgan.
Let's take a break.
Andy.
Yep.
Take a break.
All right.
Andy is in the yard, and he's telling me to take a break,
so I'll do that.
You know, I haven't seen you.
You have been on the show in 10 years.
I can't believe that.
I know.
Was it cause I didn't dance last time?
I think maybe that's it.
I--
I think we didn't invite you back because you didn't dance.
That's exactly why.
But you know what?
I actually did you a favor, because it's painful.
[LAUGHTER]
I would like to see it one day actually.
I bet now you will dance.
Having a son will make you dance.
Yeah.
But here you are talking about your son, your brand new baby,
and your openly gay now.
You were not out at the time, and I
remember having a conversation with you about that.
I don't know if you remember that, but we did talk about it,
and I'm really happy that because you came out,
and it's a freeing thing.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, you know, I'd always been--
you know, I came out in high school
to my friends, and my family, and stuff,
and was open at work, but just yes, in a public way I was not.
I hadn't made a statement about it, and you know,
I never said I wasn't gay or tried to hide it or pretend
anything else.
I just didn't want to talk about it.
But you know, it got to the point
my life where not saying something
seemed like I was saying something.
By not saying something, that seemed
like I was indicating that I was somehow ashamed of something
or you know, not happy being gay,
and the complete opposite has always been the case.
And so you know, I consider it, along with Wyatt,
one of the great blessings of my life to be gay.
And so I felt bad that by not saying something
I seemed to be saying something.
So even though I'm kind of painfully shy and introverted
and stuff, I thought, OK, well, I want to say something,
and so I did, and you know, I couldn't be happier.
I mean, even though you think you're out,
and even though you think everybody knows, and it
doesn't matter, it does matter.
And it makes a difference, and it's important to say.
I think it's important for me to have said the word gay,
that I'm gay, and I'm proud of it.
It's fantastic, and it's--
Well, it's important for people to see somebody
and to be represented, you know?
I think there are a lot of people out there
that don't feel like they're represented enough
on television, and so that's, to me, the reason to do it.
But I've got to say, I remember being--
I think it was like 1992 or maybe '93 in Los Angeles,
and there was a big event, an event for equality,
and you spoke at it, and I was in the audience,
and there was like there were thousands
people in the audience, and I just
remember it being such this incredible thing when
you came out on stage, and I just felt so proud of you,
and I mean, as I still to this day
do when I see you in all that you've achieved.
So you know, I was late to--
I wish I'd done it sooner, because it's just you know,
it's made some things more difficult in terms of work
and where I could travel, and you know,
I've traveled to a lot of countries where it's illegal
and where they kill people because of it or jail them,
and so you know, that's something
I have to take into consideration,
but I wouldn't change it for the world, and it's nice to,
you know, I work for CNN and it's seen globally
around the world, and so I am glad that it sort of sends
that message around the world.
Yeah.
Well, I'm proud of you.
I'm happy for you, and it is important.
Hi, I'm Andy.
Ellen asked me to remind you to subscribe to her channel
so you can see more awesome videos,
like videos of me getting scared or saying embarrassing things,
like ball peen hammer, and also some videos of Ellen
and other celebrities if you're into that sort of thing.
[SCREAMING]
[BLEEP]
God [BLEEP].