Viewers who tuned in to CNN’s weekly global town hall on the global coronavirus pandemic on Thursday night got a pleasant surprise at the end of the broadcast as Andreson Cooper announced that he was now the father to a baby boy.
CNN reports that the child named Wyatt Morgan Cooper was born on Monday and weighing seven pounds and two ounces. The 52-year-old shared photos of him with the baby after the televised town hall, saying that it was important to remember that there is still “new life and new love” even in the midst of all the death brought about by the coronavirus pandemic.
During his announcement, Cooper expressed his own worries about not being able to have a child owing to the fact that he is a gay man. He went on to thank the doctors and nurses that delivered his son, as well as the surrogate who carried him for nine months and gave birth to him.
According to E! Online, Cooper took his son’s name from both his mother and father’s sides of the family. Wyatt came from Cooper’s father, Wyatt Emory Cooper, who died during open-heart surgery when Cooper was only 10-years old. Morgan, meanwhile, came from his mother Gloria Vanderbilt’s side of the family. Vanderbilt died last year of stomach cancer.
Cooper also expressed wistfulness at his father, mother, and brother Carter being unable to meet his son. Carter died from suicide in 1988. Cooper said that he comforts himself by thinking that his family are together somewhere and know that their family continues in him and Wyatt.
Cooper’s announcement makes Wyatt Morgan Cooper one of the few celebrity babies born during the time of the coronavirus pandemic. Aside from Cooper, another celebrity that has grabbed attention during the pandemic because of pregnancy news is Gigi Hadid, who recently confirmed that she is indeed having a baby with former One Direction member Zayn Malik.
Wyatt Morgan Cooper’s next few months will probably be spent in isolation with his father, as there seems to be no stopping the rise of COVID-19 infections around the world. The World Health Organization’s situation report for Apr. 30 pegs the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases around the world at 3,090,445 people, with 71,839 of those being new cases. COVID-19 deaths are now at 217,769 people, with 9,797of those deaths being new ones
Meanwhile, the Apr. 30 update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention puts the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States at 1,031,659 people, with 26,512 of that total being new cases. Fatalities are at 26,512 people, with 2,552 of the total number being new deaths.