Anderson Cooper is a familiar face and name, not just for CNN viewers. Cooper might just be one of the most recognizable broadcast journalists and political commentators on the air today. He anchors the CNN news broadcast show Anderson Cooper 360° and is also a correspondent for the CBS show 60 Minutes.
Perhaps best known for on-the-ground reporting of breaking news, Cooper has been a familiar face on television throughout disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and the 2010 Haiti Earthquake. He has won 18 Emmy Awards for his work and two Peabody Awards. He has also received multiple GLAAD Media Awards and is perhaps the most prominent gay journalist on American television.
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This year, as Cooper prepares to once again host New Year’s Eve Live with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen, the annual CNN television special that focuses on the ball drop event held at Times Square, there has been some interest in Cooper’s personal life, particularly his family. But does Anderson Cooper have kids? And what do we know about his family life?
Who are Anderson Cooper’s kids?
Cooper and his ex-Benjamin Maisani share two kids, Wyatt and Sebastian. The two are no longer romantically involved, but as Cooper explained on his show, they are still family. “Wyatt and Sebastian are being raised by my best friend and former partner, Benjamin Maisani. We’re co-parents. Wyatt calls me ‘Daddy’ and Benjamin ‘Papa.’ We’re a family.”
“It’s probably an unusual setup, but I knew he would be a great dad, and he is,” Cooper said in an interview with People. “We’re exes, but we’re family to each other, and we love each other as family and as co-parents.”
Wyatt Morgan Maisani-Cooper
Born in April 2020, Wyatt is named after Cooper’s late father, Wyatt Emory Cooper. The last name for both kids is a combination of his name and his former partner’s name. Cooper announced the birth of his first son on-air in April 2020, good news in what was the beginning of the pandemic.
As for why he decided to have another kid, Cooper said on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2021, that “it would be great for [Wyatt] to have a sibling.” He wasn’t sure he was up to the task, however. “I’m not sure I can handle another, but he’s such an easy kid. He’s still sleeping like 12 and a half hours every night. He eats his sweet peas and mushed cauliflower…he’s just a happy little chappie.”
Ultimately, it seemed like the answer was yes, because less than a year later, he and his partner welcomed a second child.
Sebastian Luke Maisani-Cooper
Born in February 2022, Cooper has not revealed if there’s a reason for picking his younger son’s name. In February 2022, he revealed on his show that he’d just welcomed his second son via surrogate.
“He was 6.8 pounds at birth, and he is healthy and happy,” Cooper said, “Even his occasional hiccups are, to me, adorable,” even if he “mostly just sleeps and eats and he certainly poops, but he already seems like a wise and thoughtful little chap.”
Cooper’s two kids will certainly have a comfortable childhood, but one thing Cooper doesn’t believe in is generational wealth. “I don’t believe in passing on huge amounts of money,” he said in 2021 during an episode of the Morning Meeting podcast. “I’m not that interested in money, but I don’t intend to have some sort of pot of gold for my son. I’ll go with what my parents said…‘College will be paid for, and then you gotta get on it.’” So, like Cooper himself did—even if he was born a Vanderbilt his mother did not leave a great fortune to him—they will have to make their own way in the world.
