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Anderson Cooper Says His Mother Offered to Be His Surrogate
"Even for you this is bats**t crazy,” he told his famous mother Gloria Vanderbilt.
Anderson Cooper made headlines recently after talking about the time Madonna spanked him on stage, and now he’s back in the limelight again because he told Howard Stern the hilarious story of how his eccentric mother offered to carry his child.
On a recent episode of Stern’s SeriusXM radio show, Cooper told the story of the time his mother, the late Gloria Vanderbilt, wanted to be his surrogate.
“This was like eight years before I decided to have a child,” the CNN anchor who now has two young sons, said. “But my mom really wanted me to have a kid, and she called me up one time and she was like, ‘Honey, there’s something I really need to talk to you about.’”
Hearing that, Cooper braced himself because he had spent his life not reacting to his mother’s “crazy statements” — a talent that has proved useful as a journalist — and assumed there had been a “catastrophe” and that he’d have to help her “hide a body.”
At the time, the fashion designer and socialite was 85 years old, but said her doctor told her she could still bear children. “She was like, ‘Well the most amazing thing happened. I went to the gynecologist the other day,’” the 55-year-old journalist recalled.
“She said, ‘Isn’t that amazing?’” Cooper continued. “I said, ‘Yes, mom, I think that is amazing that a gynecologist told you that at age 85 you could still bear a child.’”
He told the shock jock radio host that he started thinking about how he could stop his mom from having a baby at 85. "Which is a thought, I'm sure, we've all had," he quipped.
Luckily Vanderbilt explained that she didn’t want to have her own baby, instead she wanted to be his surrogate.
“She was like, ‘You know, you can get an egg anywhere nowadays,’” Cooper said. “She was like, ‘Well, what I was thinking is, you get an egg and fertilize it with your sperm and I’ll carry your child.’”
He was not convinced, recalling, “I said, ‘Mom, I love you, but even for you this is bats**t crazy.’”
The out gay TV personality went on to have two sons of his own through a surrogate — who was not his mother — that he co-parents with his friend and former romantic partner Benjamin Maisani.
"How great would that have been if you had impregnated your mother?" an amused Stern asked. Cooper pointed out that even if he had taken his mom up on the offer, he wouldn’t have actually impregnated her.
But Stern jokingly pointed out that actually “you kinda would be” and said, "Your sperm shouldn't be anywhere near your mom."
Ariel Messman-Rucker is an Oakland-born journalist who now calls the Pacific Northwest her home. When she’s not writing about politics and queer pop culture, she can be found reading, hiking, or talking about horror movies with the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network.
Ariel Messman-Rucker is an Oakland-born journalist who now calls the Pacific Northwest her home. When she’s not writing about politics and queer pop culture, she can be found reading, hiking, or talking about horror movies with the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network.
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