Anderson Cooper, 52, shared some happy news amidst the pandemic! “I want to share with you some joyful news. On Monday, I became a father. This is Wyatt Cooper,” he began his lengthy Instagram post on Thursday, April 30, sharing four adorable photos of his newborn. “He is three days old. He is named after my father, who died when I was ten. I hope I can be as good a dad as he was,” he added, referencing his late father, writer Wyatt Emory Cooper who died in 1978 during an open heart surgery at just 50. Anderson read the same message aloud on-air, and was teary eyed as he made the announcement to millions of viewers on CNN, saying that he was “blessed.”
“My son’s middle name is Morgan. It’s a family name on my mom’s side,” he continued, paying a sweet tribute to his late mother Gloria Vanderbilt who passed at the age of 95 in June 2019. “I know my mom and dad liked the name Morgan because I recently found a list they made 52 years ago when they were trying to think of names for me. Wyatt Morgan Cooper. My son,” the CNN news anchor continued, adding that “he was 7.2 lbs at birth, and he is sweet, and soft, and healthy and I am beyond happy.”
In the first photo, Anderson is sweetly feeding baby Wyatt with a bottle, and in the next he shows off his Wyatt’s adorable face! The New York native took the opportunity to also remember his late brother Carter Wyatt, who tragically committed suicide in 1988 at just 23 years old. “I do wish my mom and dad and my brother, Carter, were alive to meet Wyatt, but I like to believe they can see him,” Anderson shared in a deeply emotional part of his message, through a cracking voice. “I imagine them all together, arms around each other, smiling and laughing, happy to know that their love is alive in me and in Wyatt, and that our family continues…new life and new love,” Anderson said, as he glanced off camera to a photo of little Wyatt wrapped in a white receiving blanket.
Congrats to Anderson Cooper @AC360pic.twitter.com/p8P6krkf87
— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) May 1, 2020
“As a gay kid, I never thought it would be possible to have a child, and I’m grateful for all those who have paved the way, and for the doctors and nurses and everyone involved in my son’s birth,” he wrote in the emotional message, expressing immense gratitude to his surrogate for carrying and giving birth to his bundle of joy.
“Most of all, I am grateful to a remarkable surrogate who carried Wyatt, and watched over him lovingly, and tenderly, and gave birth to him,” he wrote. “It is an extraordinary blessing – what she, and all surrogates give to families who cant have children. My surrogate has a beautiful family of her own, a wonderfully supportive husband, and kids, and I am incredibly thankful for all the support they have given Wyatt and me. My family is blessed to have this family in our lives,” he continued.