Anderson Cooper opens up about why he asked his ex Benjamin Maisani to help raise his son

Anderson Cooper has revealed he asked his ex, Benjamin Maisani, to help raise his newborn son because he thinks ‘it’s good to have two parents’.  

Anderson, 52, dated nightclub owner Benjamin, 47, for a decade before they split in 2018 –  but the former couple will be co-parenting Anderson’s son, Wyatt, who was born through a surrogate in late April.

‘I don’t really have a family, and so my friends become my family,’ Anderson explained Tuesday during an interview on  The Howard Stern Show. ‘This is somebody that I was involved with for 10 years, he’s a great guy.’

Anderson’s mother, fashion designer Gloria Vanderbilt, passed away last year at the age of 95.

She became a single mom when Anderson was just 10, after her husband, Wyatt, died during open heart surgery. 

‘When I was a little kid, it was just my mom and my brother, but my mom she was not the most parental person,’ Anderson told Howard Stern Tuesday. 

‘I wish some adult, after my dad died, had stepped in and just been like “I’ll take you to a ballgame, lets go out to lunch, let’s just talk”. But no one ever did that’.

Anderson explained that experience helped him to realize he wanted his newborn son to have more than one parent. 

‘If something happens to me or even if something doesn’t happen to me, the more people love my son and are in his life, I’m all for that,’ he stated. 

‘My ex is a great guy and I think it’s good to have two parents, if you can’.  

‘So I thought, if something happens to me or even if something doesn’t happen to me, the more people love my son and are in his life, I’m all for that,’ he said.

‘My ex is a great guy and I think it’s good to have two parents, if you can,’ he added, before explaining which one will be called ‘dad’ or ‘daddy.’

‘My ex is French, so he’s gonna speak in French to the kid, so he’s gonna be papa and I’m gonna be dad or daddy,’ Cooper explained.  

He added that Benjamin is already speaking French to the kid, though he doesn’t know what he’s saying, joking, ‘he could be turning the kid against me.’

Cooper revealed last week that he’s not taking paternity leave after his son’s birth, so he can keep reporting on the coronavirus pandemic.

‘This is not some story, this is life and death. This is as serious as it gets,’ Cooper said, during an interview on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.

‘It’s more important than ever before that things be true and accurate. That’s one of the reasons why I’m not taking time off,’ Cooper added.

‘Thankfully, I can do some work from home and stuff, but I feel like this is an extraordinary time to be in this business as a reporter and to be able to try to help inform people, give people facts,’ the host said.

He told Colbert: ‘Right now, facts and science, to give people the truth, is the difference between life and death.’