CNN's Brooke Baldwin on How Anderson Cooper's 'Sweetness' Will Translate as a Dad (Exclusive)

Brooke Baldwin is excited to watch Anderson Cooper be a dad! ET's Nischelle Turner recently spoke to the 40-year-old CNN anchor, who gushed over her colleague's newborn baby boy.

"Wyatt Cooper! He's a dad. Congratulations to Anderson," Baldwin says of Cooper, who welcomed his son via surrogate last month. "You look at the pictures of the baby and he's already got the furrowed brow, like he's ready with the tough questions, little baby Anderson."

"I think there's a lot of sweetness and goodness in Anderson," she adds. "I'm so thrilled for him and wish him all the best."

ET's chat with Baldwin came amid her recovery from the coronavirus, which she tested positive for last month. Though she feels "nearly 100 percent now," Baldwin said the body aches from the virus were "excruciating" at times.

"I'd crawl into the bathtub and I would just sob because I would try to use the hot water to distract my skin," she says. "But you know, again, I was lucky. I popped a lot of Tylenol and slept a lot. I slept like a teenage boy. I would sleep 12 hours a night, wake up, have a tea, and go back to sleep for three more hours. It takes it out of you."

Though Baldwin was candid about her struggle with COVID-19 in an effort to give people "hope," she was initially uncomfortable becoming the story that she was reporting on.

"I want to listen to people, I want to talk to people, I don't necessarily want the attention on me," she says. "I started getting all of these texts and Instagram messages and phone calls, I felt unworthy initially. I felt very vulnerable... When I was feeling my absolute worst that's when I would sit in my bed and go through all these comments, just leaning into the love and support because that is what honestly helped me kick this thing."

In addition to the social media love she received, she also heard from Gayle King, DJ Jazzy Jeff and her CNN colleagues amid her illness and recovery.

"I have been in touch with him," she says of Chris Cuomo, a fellow CNN anchor who tested positive for the virus. "I got phone calls from Sanjay [Gupta], and Wolf [Blitzer], and Jake Tapper, they're all texting me and of course our friend, Don Lemon, was blowing me up!"

Now that she's feeling better, Baldwin plans to donate her plasma to help people struggling with COVID-19, and use her own experience with the virus to influence her reporting.

"When I talk to  family members with sick loved ones, I just I understand it a bit more and have that empathy in a way that someone who is fortunate enough not to have it doesn't," she explains. "I love to be able to bring that to CNN."

Baldwin anchors the 2 to 4 p.m. edition of CNN Newsroom.

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