The Truth About How Anderson Cooper's Mother Wanted To Be His Surrogate

As a "gay kid" who grew up as part of a different generation, Anderson Cooper believed having children was not going to happen for him, according to an Instagram post he wrote in 2020. He'd accepted that reality, even though he wished he could have his own family. However, on April 27, 2020, Cooper welcomed a son, Wyatt, whom he co-parents with his ex-partner, Benjamin Maisani, according to People. Cooper named his baby boy after his father, who died when Cooper was just a child, per the Instagram post. "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 caption. 

Cooper and Maisani had their child via a surrogate, whom Cooper thanked for making it possible for him to finally have his family. "It is an extraordinary blessing — what she, and all surrogates give to families who cant have children," he added. In the post, Cooper also stated that he wished his father and mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, were alive to meet their grandson. In fact, Vanderbilt had previously suggested Cooper look into surrogacy, he said on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" in late September 2021.

But Vanderbilt didn't stop there. She offered to carry his child for him. She was 85 years old when that interesting conversation happened. Read on to learn how that convo went down.

About a decade ago, Gloria Vanderbilt — who is the heiress of one of America's oldest wealthy families and died in 2019 — told her son she had something to talk to him about, as Anderson Cooper explained on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert." Cooper was expecting her to say he was to pay for a redecoration project or something along those lines. But no, his mother wanted to share that she wanted to get pregnant. Yes, her gynecologist told her she could still bear a child. 

As an embarrassed Cooper tried to explain that having a kid at 85 meant she wouldn't be able to raise it, Vanderbilt quickly stopped him. "She says to me, 'Honey, I'm not talking about having a child of my own, I mean, that's crazy,'" he explained. After sighing with relief, he asked her why she was bringing it up. "She's like 'Well, what I was thinking is you get an egg and, you know, fertilize it with your sperm and I'll carry your child,'" Cooper told Colbert.

Vanderbilt was known for her eccentric personality, but this was out there even for her. "I finally said to her, I was like, 'Mom, I love you, but even for you, that is just bats**t crazy. That is just nuts.' That is so weirdly oedipal on a whole new level. That kid would be on the cover of The New York Post for the rest of its life," Cooper laughed.

Anderson Cooper's attempts to explain to his mother that carrying a child for him was not a good idea were in vain. While she dropped the matter for a while, Gloria Vanderbilt continued to believe it was an incredible idea. As Cooper detailed on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," he received a newspaper clipping in the mail from his mother two years later about that conversation. 

"It's a photograph, the headline is, 'Grandmother bears child for son,' and it's some woman, I think in Italy who was like 65 or something, or 70. And it's a photo of her in the labor room in the stirrups," Cooper noted. The story involved a gay couple, who were shown in the photograph, he explained while recreating the scene. "And my mom has circled it, and written in a note, 'See!'" Cooper laughed.

To honor his mother and her family history, Cooper recently released the book "Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty," whose cover shows the photograph of Vanderbilt pictured here. In it, Cooper traces his family back to Cornelius Vanderbilt, a man born in 1794 who built a shipping and railroad empire, and explores how the subsequent generations lost it all, according to The New York Times. Cooper told People that having a child sparked his interest in his ancestors. "It's just this extraordinary feeling of connection to people who are no longer here and connection to the past," he said.