Anderson Cooper is revealing how fatherhood has changed him in a candid new interview as he discusses getting ‘addicted’ to coffee, meditating in the morning instead of scrolling through Twitter and says he is no longer a ‘late riser.’
The CNN anchor welcomed his baby son Wyatt via a surrogate in April this year and has confessed that having a little one has already ‘changed everything.’
Anderson, 53, told the Wall Street Journal on Monday that his four-month-old son – who is sleeping 12 hours a night thanks to his ‘amazing nurse’ – is giving him a new purpose in life.
Perky parent: Anderson Cooper says since being a father to son Wyatt he’s become ‘addicted’ to coffee, in a new interview with The Wall Street Journal published Monday
‘It’s changed everything,’ he admitted. ‘I’ve often in my life felt like I was waiting for my actual life to begin – it’s obviously ridiculous because I’m 53 years old – but… I’ve been very focused on getting to some place, getting a story. Because I’m focused on him, it gives an order to everything.’
However, one thing that hasn’t changed is having any sleepless nights, as Wyatt is said to be in an unusually good routine for a newborn, thanks to his nurse.
‘I have an amazing nurse… I’m not sure what she’s done but I’m told there’s no Ambien or whiskey involved,’ Anderson remarked, referring to his son sleeping through the night for 12 hours straight.
Precious son: Four-month-old Wyatt was born via a surrogate in April this year
But Anderson does reveal that he is no longer a late riser, and gets up at around 7am, despite having worked nights at CNN.
Wyatt’s bedroom is on the floor above him at his New York home, and the news anchor says he’s usually able to squeeze in 30 to 45 minutes meditation time before his son wakes up.
‘I live in a 110-year-old firehouse in New York and I’m on the third floor and he’s on the fourth floor. So I go up and I wait around for him to make sounds and then go into his room to be there,’ Anderson reveals.
Adorable: Anderson Cooper posted two new heartwarming new snaps of his son Wyatt back in July
The early starts has also got Anderson hooked on coffee – enjoying a cup from Dunkin’ Donuts – to get him going in the morning, admitting that he’s been skipping breakfast due to being on a fasting diet.
‘I’ve become addicted to coffee, I’m not sure if that’s a good thing. I allow myself one to two coffees a day: iced coffee, black and nothing else in it because that’s not breaking the fast,’ he says.
He adds: ‘I now understand coffee, although I do think it’s basically just a narcotic. And we’ve all just accepted that, oh yeah, coffee’s not a drug, it’s just a drink. No, it’s not, it’s a drug. But everyone seems to think it’s OK, it’s legal.’
Update: Anderson, 53, captioned this July snap: ‘Wyatt is 10 weeks old and doing great. He likes naps and milk and being read to. Thank you for all your lovely cards and messages!’
But fasting isn’t the only diet Anderson is currently on, as he also spoke about altering his daily intake of news on social media.
‘I used to be on Twitter and reading tweets and that would be the first thing that I did in the morning and I found that it made me feel awful all day long,’ he explains.
‘When I step out of bed, I do not want to step into the stream of Twitter. I just stopped. I rarely post at all and I’ve found that my life has improved dramatically, not reading this constant stream.’
As a calming ritual, Anderson explains how he enjoys reading a physical copy of a newspaper, having his trustee cup of coffee, while his son takes a nap.
Elsewhere in the interview, Anderson reveals how he has been sorting through the belongings of his late mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, who passed away last June in New York.
‘It’s incredible. I’ve been going through it for actually about 15 years,’ he says, adding: ‘It’s personal papers of hers, journals and artwork, her paintings—there’s hundreds of paintings and drawings. It’s fascinating because you never know what you’re going to get.’
‘You open one box and it’s a chandelier, you open another box and it’s Rice Krispies from 1953, then you open another box and it’s letters from Gordon Parks or Roald Dahl, just extraordinary history.’
Anderson revealed earlier this year that although his artist mother did not get to meet Wyatt, he did get a chance to tell her that he was set to become a father, which he said gave her immense joy.
In this interview, Anderson recites a quote of advice Gloria would tell him from Scottish writer, Ian MacLaren: “Be kind, because everybody you meet is fighting a great battle.”
Anderson explains: ‘It’s a really important thing to remember. Some people show their scars but not everybody does. And everybody has been through something and is struggling with something.’
‘And it’s very easy not to be kind, it’s very easy to treat people as “other than.” It’s an important thing to keep in mind, that when you start to get self-righteous and want to shout at somebody, maybe this person’s fighting a great battle that we don’t know about.’
In July this year, Anderson gave an update to fans about his son, saying: ‘He likes naps and milk and being read to. Thank you for all your lovely cards and messages!’
The post caused a flurry of comments from fans and friends, including fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg who said that his son ‘looks like Gloria,’ referring to his late mother.