Cheers to Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen’s Cutest Dad Moments

Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper CNN NYE Special: All The Wildest Moments! 

When Andy Cohen became a father, Anderson Cooper was instantly elevated to uncle status.

“Uncle Anderson got an exclusive,” Cohen captioned a photo from the moment his friend of 30 years met his infant son Benjamin Allen Cohen, who was born via surrogate on Feb. 4, 2019.

“I could stare at @bravoandy’s son all day long,” Cooper captioned his own post from the day. “And i sort of want to be swaddled too.”

Instead, the Anderson Cooper 360 host decided the time was finally right to do the swaddling. And when his son Wyatt Morgan Maisani-Cooper was born (also via surrogate) on April 27, 2020, Cohen scored the big first interview.

“Ben, this is Wyatt. This is Wyatt Cooper. He’s gonna be your good buddy,” the Bravo host said as the pair virtually introduced their boys on Watch What Happens Live. “That’s gonna be your good buddy and we’re gonna travel together. And if you like him half as much as I like his daddy, you’re gonna be great friends.”

And the rest is doting-dad history.  

Cooper, a famously unenthusiastic, food-is-fuel eater, admittedly wondered, “How do you feed your kids?”

“Literally this was a concern of mine,” he said on SiriusXM’s Andy Cohen Live June 13. “Like, I don’t know how I will make three meals a day for them and actually keep them fed. That was a hurdle for me to overcome.”

Not surprisingly, the guy who’s reported from war zones and during natural disasters eventually mastered scrambled eggs and other “basic stuff for breakfast” and “basic pastas and stuff like that” for dinner. “It’s actually possible,” Cooper said. (And a woman who helped care for his late mom, Gloria Vanderbilt, also comes in once a week to meal prep “so there’s healthy stuff in the fridge, like salmon—the kids love salmon—and vegetables.”)

“It’s been wild for me to see the domestic side of you,” Cohen noted, explaining, “I don’t see you interact with food products very much, so it is interesting for me sociologically.”

Along with the surplus of joy, it did ultimately mean finding out what dad guilt felt like. “If I spend three hours with Ben, and then I have to go to work, you know, you’re at work, and you’re like, ‘Did I spend enough time with Ben today?'” he explained. “If Ben tells me that I’m his best friend or he grabs for my hand to hold it, or he cuddles me extra tight, I mean, there’s not gonna be a bigger win in my day than that.”

And Cooper would concur that being Wyatt and Sebastian’s dad is now his most towering achievement, the 57-year-old telling People in September 2023 there had been so many “moments of such bliss, humor and gentleness and sheer delight that it stuns me.”

“This is the best time in my life,” the CNN anchor added. “There is no doubt about it.”

He said coparenting and living with ex-partner Benjamin Maisani despite their breakup in 2018 felt “very natural,” noting their complementary schedules.

“I work nights, and so he’s there at night,” Cooper explained. “And we both wake up right before they wake up, get them their milk and spend the first couple of hours of the day just us with them. And Benjamin speaks French to them. I have no idea what they’re saying. I think they’re plotting against me.”

But there’s safety in numbers, and Cohen and Cooper of course have each other as they navigate the wilds of parenting.

“Hanging out with @bravoandy and the little ones,” Cooper captioned an April 2024 pic of the pair with Wyatt and Ben perched on their respective shoulders. “No better way to spend the day.”

Wrote Cohen on his page, “Every day is Father’s Day! #AC4.”

And there’s no need to wait until New Year’s Eve to toast the joys of fatherhood, especially since the kids remain way too young for such shenanigans, so read on for more of Cooper and Cohen’s sweetest dad moments: