Anderson Cooper Gets Candid About When He Knew (And Accepted) He Was Gay

Anderson Cooper opened up about his sexuality during a recent episode of his CNN show, Full Circle.

Earlier this week, Cooper, 53, was asked by a viewer what age he realized he was gay and accepted his sexuality. “I was probably ... I don’t know ... 7, when I kind of realized," he explained during Monday's (January 10) episode of his show. "I'm not sure I knew the word ‘gay’ at the time, but I realized something was up, something was different. It was probably, yeah, 6 or 7."

While he learned to understand more about sexuality in his teenage years and even opened up to friends about being gay, Cooper said that he "struggled" with the internal dilemma. "It wasn't what I envisioned for my life," he admitted. "I imagined a family and getting married and all those things, which weren't possible at the time."

Cooper, who welcomed his first child, Wyatt, via surrogate in April 2020, marched forward in life by pivoting his focus on his studies at Yale University. "Anderson Cooper Gets Candid About Accepting Himself As GayI think I really, truly accepted it — and just kind of, really not just accepted it but fully embraced it and came around to really loving the fact that I was gay — would probably be right after college," he explained. Additionally, he said that about a year after college, he realized that he no longer wanted to waste "any ore time worrying" about his sexuality and wishing that things were different.

"I think being gay is one of the great blessings of my life,” he continued. "And it's made me a better person; it's made me a better reporter. When you grow up feeling that you’re on the outside of things, you’re kind of an observer of things or not necessarily in the mainstream, you see society from a slightly different view. And I think that can be very valuable and can impact how you treat other people and how you see things. It's enabled me to love the people that I've loved and have the life that I've had. So I'm very blessed."

Photo: Getty Images


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