Anderson Cooper and his ex-boyfriend are having “the best time” living together & co-parenting their sons
Anderson Cooper is having “the best time in [his] life” co-parenting his two sons with ex-boyfriend Benjamin Maisani. The journalist (and bonafide silver fox) got candid about fatherhood in a new cover story for People Magazine, revealing their family dynamic feels “very natural.”Cooper originally dated Maisani, a night-club owner, through 2018.
When the 56-year-old welcomed his first child Wyatt via surrogacy, the duo made the decision to co-parent. And when their youngest son Sebastian was born in 2022, Maisani adopted Wyatt.
Both children’s last names are Maisani-Cooper.The family splits their time between New York City and a home in the Connecticut countryside, and have found balance in their albeit unconventional arrangement.A post shared by People Magazine (@people)“I work nights, and so [Maisani is] 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.”It seems their sons are getting the best of what their fathers have to offer, between Cooper’s experience as a CNN host for two decades and Maisani teaching them French. “I have no idea what they’re saying,” Cooper quipped. “I think they’re plotting against me.”For his part, 50-year-old Maisani said their family brings him “moments of such bliss, humor and gentleness and sheer delight that it stuns me.”A post shared by Oprah Daily (@oprahdaily)If the whole thing sounds a bit odd, that’s because it is.
But the family more than manages. “We get along really well and … yeah, it’s weird but it works out,” Cooper told Ellen DeGeneres back in 2021. “It’s interesting, because he wasn’t really sure he wanted to have a kid –– which is one of the reasons we probably broke up –– but then, he came around to the idea.
