Anderson Cooper on New Baby: I'll Be 'Dad,' My Ex Will Be 'Papa'

CNN host explains to Howard Stern why former BF Benjamin Maisani is helping him raise little Wyatt
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted May 13, 2020 7:50 AM CDT

Wyatt Morgan Cooper's most famous dad is Anderson Cooper, but he's got a second one who will help raise him as well. Per Page Six, the CNN anchor dished about his new son Tuesday on Howard Stern's SiriusXM radio show, and he told Stern that ex-boyfriend Benjamin Maisani will be co-parenting baby Wyatt with him. Stern seemed baffled. "Don't you want a clean break from this guy?" Stern asked. "Why have him involved?" The 52-year-old explained he doesn't really have any family—his dad died when he was 10, his brother took his own life about 10 years later, and his mom, Gloria Vanderbilt, died last year—and that his friends have "become my family."

Plus, while "we didn't work out as a couple ... this is somebody I was involved with for 10 years," Cooper said, adding that Maisani, 47, is a "great guy, and I think it's good to have two parents if you can." He noted that when his father died, his mom was "not the most parental person" and that he'd wished there'd been another adult to take him to an occasional ballgame or just talk. "I thought, well, 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." As for what Wyatt will call his two dads: It will be "Dad" or "Daddy" for Cooper, "Papa" for Maisani, who was born in France. "He could be turning the kid against me, I don't know," Cooper joked about Maisani speaking French to the baby. (More Anderson Cooper stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X