Anderson Cooper Knew He Was Gay After Seeing This Hollywood Star Shirtless

Famous news anchor Anderson Cooper recently opened up about his sexuality and how he realized he was gay. After many years of keeping his sexuality and romance life private, Cooper came out in 2012, becoming one of the prominent gay men in the journalism industry.

During an interview on Radio Andy with host Andy Cohen, Cooper revealed that it was a chance meeting with a shirtless Richard Gere when he was 11 that awakened him to the fact that he was gay. 

Many years have passed since then, and Cooper is now openly gay, a major anchor at CNN with his own show, and a father to two boys. Read on to find out details about Cooper's meeting with Gere, how he came out, and his experience as a father.

During the radio interview with Cohen, Cooper recalled that he met many of his mom Gloria Vanderbilt's gay friends as a kid and often hung out with them. He focused on one particular outing when Gore Vidal, Truman Capote, and Paul Jasmin, along with Jasmin's boyfriend, took him to see a Broadway show.

He said, "And they took me to see Richard Gere in Bent, which, if anyone doesn't know about the play Bent, it's about two gay guys in the concentration camp. I mean the opening scene… It is the gayest thing you can imagine."

Cooper continued, "And this was Richard Gere in 1977, Looking for Mr. Goodbar. He was so beautiful. And I'm there. My mom didn't go. It was just me and my mom's two gay friends."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7qSiieVw_Y

The 55-year-old CNN anchor explained to Cohen that the opening scene features a man waking up completely naked and dressing up in a SS uniform after a night of sex with another man.

He said, "And I just remember being like, 'Oh my God, I'm gay. ... I'm totally gay.' And afterward, Paul Jasmin was friends with Richard Gere. Cause Paul Jasmin took the pictures for American Gigolo, and we went backstage, and Richard Gere was shirtless in his dressing room.

"And I couldn't speak. And I had my Playbill and I wanted to get him to autograph it, but I was too — I just couldn't stop staring at his chest," he continued, "And so, fast forward to 10 years ago, I was interviewing Richard Gere and I took out the Playbill ... and I told him the whole story and I had him sign it. Yeah. He was very tickled by it."

Cooper came out as gay publicly in 2012, releasing a statement saying that he "couldn't be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud." He came out in an email he sent to Daily Beast's Andrew Sullivan, which he permitted Sullivan to post on his blog. 

Cooper wrote the email in response to an Entertainment Weekly article that detailed how gay celebrities are coming out more and more, but in more restrained ways than before. In the email, he wrote, "The fact is, I'm gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn't be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud."

Cooper explained that he was private about his sexuality for "professional reasons" but began to think about "whether the unintended outcomes of maintaining my privacy outweigh personal and professional principles." Finally, several instances of gay bullying convinced him that "there is value in making clear where I stand."

He concluded the email with, "I still consider myself a reserved person, and I hope this doesn't mean an end to a small amount of personal space. But I do think visibility is important, more important than preserving my reporter's shield of privacy."

Cooper is a father to two boys, two-year-old Wyatt Morgan, and four-year-old Sebastian Luke. He co-parents them with his former partner Benjamin Maisani. Cooper recently opened up about their parenting arrangement during an interview with People magazine.

He said, "It's awesome. It's probably an unusual setup, but I knew he would be a great dad, and he is. We're exes, but we're family to each other, and we love each other as family and as co-parents. There's the usual bickering that any two people have when there's a kid involved, like what time should he go to swimming class, or should he wear the overalls, or whatever. But all silly, minor things. We get along great."

Cooper added that he always believed in the idea "that if you've been with somebody and that ends, in terms of an intimate relationship, if you love somebody, there's no reason why that love shouldn't continue."