CNN anchor Anderson Cooper has revealed that his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, offered to act as a surrogate mother for his son just before she died in 2019 at the age of 85.
In an interview with the London TimesCooper said his mother offered to be a surrogate mother for his son Wyatt, but he turned down the idea, calling it “the most Oedipal weird thing.”
He recalled, “I was like, ‘Mom, that’s the craziest, most Oedipal weird thing.’ Please! Even for you, Mom, that’s ruined. We would have been on the cover of the New York Post for the next 18 years. Are you joking?’
Cooper did not elaborate on whether his mother was joking, or whether she honestly believed she would be able to carry a baby in her ninth decade.
Gloria came from a long line of New York’s most influential family and married Wyatt Cooper in 1963, shortly before having her two sons, Carter and Anderson.
Anderson Cooper reveals that his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, offered to act as a surrogate mother for his son just before she died in 2019
Gloria came from a long line of New York’s most influential family, the Vanderbilts, and married Wyatt Cooper in 1963. She had two sons: Carter and Anderson.
In April 2020, Cooper and his then-partner Benjamin Maisani announced the birth of Wyatt. Sebastian followed in February 2022.
Cooper’s father died when he was ten of heart problems and Carter took his own life by jumping from the balcony of his mother’s house in 1988 at the age of 23.
Gloria witnessed her son’s death, with Anderson saying the horrific moment haunted her until his death.
Ultimately, Cooper and his then-partner Benjamin Maisani found a surrogate mother: a young, married woman with children of her own.
In April 2020, less than a year after his mother died, he announced the birth of his son Wyatt.
Cooper welcomed another son, Sebastian, in February 2022, and the ex-couple co-parented both boys at Cooper’s old firehouse in New York.
Although Cooper felt ready to become a father when he turned 40, he feared that history would repeat itself and that he would die early in his child’s life.
‘I was convinced I would die at the age of 50. My father died at 50, and his father died at 50. I thought, ‘If I die at 50, which I’m pretty sure I do, then that means the kids will be 10 when I die.’ That was the age I was when my father died.’
All that fear disappeared when he turned 51. ‘I thought, ‘Oh!’. And I talked to my doctor and he said, ‘You’re an idiot. Best wishes. You’re on statins… Medicine has changed a lot,” he told the publication.
Although Gloria was the one who encouraged Cooper to become a father, his childhood Scottish nanny is what he thinks about most while raising his children.
He calls May McLinden the woman he could rely on most after his father died.
Cooper’s father died when he was ten of heart problems and Carter took his own life by jumping from the balcony of his mother’s house for her at the age of 21.
The ex-couple co-parents both boys at Cooper’s old firehouse in New York and has a chef prepare their meals for them
While Gloria was the one who encouraged Cooper to become a father, it is his childhood Scottish nanny who he thinks about most while raising his children
Cooper tells the magazine: ‘May was my mother in many ways and was the most important. In terms of importance in my life, she was on the same level as my father and mother.’
“After my father’s death, she was the person I could rely on more than anyone else.”
But his close relationship with his nanny was not something Gloria liked and she fired May from her job, forcing Cooper to divorce her.
‘My mother was hurt by the close relationship I had with May and one day she fired her without any warning. I came home and May was packing her things and trying not to cry in front of me… There was nothing she or I could do.”
However, May and Cooper were not separated for long and he began taking her on trips to Los Angeles and Rome.
Unfortunately, by the time he was able to buy her a house, she was beginning to suffer from dementia. She told him in phone calls that she was caring for a child, who turned out to be a ceramic dog she thought was Cooper.
On his podcast, Cooper says: ‘It turned out that (ceramic dog) was the child she had told me about.
‘The dog was a gift I gave her for her birthday when I was maybe twelve years old. The dog she was holding, the one she thought was a child. She thought it was me.”
He recalled in the interview, “I thought, ‘Mom, that’s the craziest, most Oedipal weird thing.’ Please! Even for you, Mom, that’s fed up. We would have been on the cover of the New York Post for the next 18 years. Are you joking?’
Speaking of his home and love life, Cooper says he doesn’t have time to date anyone and wouldn’t be if he even said yes to a date.
Gloria did not like Cooper’s close relationship with his nanny and fired her one day, but Cooper reconnected with his nanny when he became an adult.
After her condition worsened, Cooper flew to Scotland to have May placed in a nursing home, where she died in 2014.
That was the day “the world stopped turning for me,” he said as he mourned his beloved nanny.
About his home life and love life, Cooper said he doesn’t have time to date anyone and isn’t sure if he would even say yes to a date.
“I mean, it would probably be at night, so I wouldn’t take time away from my kids, but I’m exhausted at night,” he said.
‘I never used to wake up before ten o’clock. I now wake up at 6 am and make sure the milk and porridge are ready for the children. I want to be there and I want to wake them up and there’s nothing better.”