Dhruv Trivedi
Anderson Cooper is possibly one of the most recognizable faces in mainstream journalism, known widely for anchoring the CNN show ‘Anderson Cooper 360°.’ The Yale graduate honed his journalistic chops traveling the world, covering war zones for Channel One News in his younger days, and has since been widely recognized for his on-the-ground news reporting. His coverage of the Haiti earthquake in 2010 earned him a National Order of Honour and Merit, prior to which he also received widespread acclaim for his coverage of Hurricane Katrina.
The multi-Emmy and Peabody Award-winning journalist came out as gay in 2012, following a growing trend of normalizing coming out of the closet, and subsequently also revealed some details about his personal life. We decided to take a look at what he revealed and check in on what goes on in this prolific journalist’s love life. Here’s what we found.
Anderson Cooper’s Former Relationships
Despite being a public figure for many years, Anderson Cooper is notoriously secretive about his personal life and resisted for many years the continuous questions and taunts targeted at him regarding his relationship status and sexuality. In 2012, Cooper came out through an email that he sent to his longtime friend, Andrew Sullivan, of the Daily Beast.
In the email, which he allowed Sullivan to make public, Cooper clarified that he was coming out so that there were no misconceptions about him wanting to hide something. He categorically stated that he was happy and proud of who he was and had always been open about his personal life with his family and friends. He also hinted in no uncertain terms that he did not think that his coming out would hurt his viewership. Incidentally, Cooper, in 2016, went on to become the first openly LGBTQ+ person to moderate a presidential debate.
Anderson Cooper and his longest known partner, Benjamin Maisani, a nightclub mogul, reportedly met in 2009. Their relationship, however, was kept under wraps for a long time and was revealed years later, after Cooper came out as being gay. In 2014, speaking about the public attention their relationship was getting, Maisani told French Morning that he knew that people were interested in knowing details about their relationship but that he himself was not interested in being a celebrity. He also pointed out that he had realized from the start that he would have to be careful not to let the constant publicity get out of hand. The two were often seen at red carpet events, hand in hand and sharply dressed.
In 2018, a representative of Cooper’s confirmed that he had split with his longtime partner. In a statement, Cooper went on to state that the two had split some time ago but were still like family and loved each other very much. In the past, Cooper was also linked with his longtime friend and radio and TV host Andy Cohen. However, he was quick to shut down any possibilities of a relationship between the two. Whilst appearing on ‘The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,’ he recalled realizing that he would never go on a date with Andy since he broke the all-important rule of asking Cooper about his mother within the first minute of talking to him. Cooper and Cohen, however, share a warm friendship and are known to have regular play dates with their young sons.
Prior to his announcement in 2018 about the split with Maisani, Cooper was seen on multiple occasions with Victor Lopez, a radiologist from Dallas, Texas. The two featured together on multiple social media posts, with Cooper attending Lopez’s birthday party and the latter attending the journalist’s AC2 tour with Andy Cohen. This sparked rumors about a possible relationship between the two, but they were never confirmed.
Anderson Cooper’s Dating Life
Anderson Cooper is currently not known to be dating anyone. The prolific journalist still lives with his ex-boyfriend Benjamin Maisani, as he revealed to Ellen DeGeneres on her talk show. He went on to describe the co-parenting relationship he has with Maisani, with the two sharing custody of his (at that time) 9-month-old son. “We actually still live in the same house because we get along really well,” Cooper said. “It’s weird but it works out.”
Cooper has explained that the reason he’s sharing parenting responsibilities with his ex-boyfriend is that he wants his son to have two loving parents. Reportedly, Cooper is “Dad,” and Maisani is “Papa” to the baby. It seems that between his baby boy and caring ex-boyfriend, Cooper has all the love he needs. At the moment, he likely has his hands full with the steep learning curve that comes with becoming a first-time parent and is not diverting his attention to dating.
Anderson Cooper’s Son
On April 30, 2020, Cooper announced that his son, Wyatt Morgan, had been born by a surrogate just 3 days ago on April 27. He and his longtime ex, Benjamin, have decided to co-parent the child and share custody of Wyatt. In an interview with Howard Stern, Cooper explained, “I don’t really have a family and so my friends become my family. This is somebody I was involved with for 10 years.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CN3bGdihoUn/?utm_source=ig_embed
Most recently, the award-winning journalist, who is guest-hosting ‘Jeopardy!’ shared a picture of his young son seeing his father for the first time on television as he hosted the game show. Cooper went on to say that it was a dream come true for him to be hosting the game show, of which he has been a fan since he was a teenager.
Read More: Andy Cohen Net Worth
