Anderson Cooper Reveals Mother Gloria Vanderbilt Made Offer to Be His Surrogate at 85

Anderson Cooper recently shared just how much his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, was committed to him. Though his mother passed away nearly two years ago, the media maven has opened up about the lengths his mom went to in order to show her dedication to his fatherhood journey. 

During Cooper's appearance on the Sept. 23 episode of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, the 54-year-old journalist said his mom offered to be a surrogate for him when she was at the tender age of 85-years-old amid Cooper's longing for a child. He called his mother's suggestions "kind of nutty," adding that his mother went as far as seeing a gynecologist. The appointment confirmed that in spite of her age, she'd be able to carry a baby to full-term. 

"She says to me, 'Honey, I'm not talking about having a child of my own. I mean, that's crazy, I'm 85...I was thinking, you get an egg and fertilize it with a sperm, and I'll carry your child,'" Cooper explained. "I finally said to her, I was like, 'Mom, I love you, but even for you, that is just batsh*t crazy. That is just nuts.' That is so weirdly oedipal on a whole new level. That kid would be on the cover of The New York Post for the rest of its life." Still, she was not willing to change her mind.

"Then, fast forward two years later, I get a thing in the mail that my mom has sent me ... and it's a newspaper clipping and it's a photograph, the headline is, 'Grandmother Bears Child for Son,' and it's some woman, I think in Italy who was like 65 or something, or 70. And it's a photo of her in the labor room in the stirrups," Cooper said. He explained the story was of a mom who carried a child for her gay son and his boyfriend, as Vanderbilt was willing to do. "She's in the delivery room with her legs in the thing, and her son and his husband are right there, ready to catch. And my mom has circled it, and written in a note, 'See!'"

In spite of the obstacles, Wyatt welcomed a son in April 2020, months after his mother died.