Anderson Cooper said he first realized as a young child that he was gay.
‘I mean, I was probably, I do not know, 7 when I realized a little bit. I’m not sure I knew the word ‘gay’ at the time, but I did realize something was going on. “Something was different,” he said on CNN’s “Full Circle” on Monday.
The CNN anchor, 53, said he reached out to some people in high school, but that he was not gay until he studied at Yale University in 1989.
“I think I really accepted it, and not only accepted, but also fully accepted, and you know I really loved the fact that I’m gay – would probably go to university,” he said. .
“You know, I certainly struggled in my teens, but even a little bit in college,” he continued.
Cooper explained that he had many interests at the time and he wanted to consider joining the military, but he felt he could not because he was gay and worried about his ‘safety’.
‘It felt like there were a lot of limitations to it, and that was not what I was imagining my life. Or I introduced myself to a family and got married. All the things that were not possible at the time, “said Cooper, who welcomed son Wyatt via surrogate last year.
The broadcaster also said that being gay made him a better reporter because it gave him a different perspective.
Cooper appeared in public in an online letter in 2012.
“The fact is that I am gay, always have been, always will be, and I will no longer be able to be happy, comfortable with myself and proud,” he wrote.