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

By Paige Gawley‍
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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."

View this post on Instagram

I want to share with you some joyful news. On Monday, I became a father. This is Wyatt Cooper. He is three days old. He is named after my father, who died when I was ten. I hope I can be as good a dad as he was. My son's middle name is Morgan. It's a family name on my mom's side. I know my mom and dad liked the name morgan because I recently found a list they made 52 years ago when they were trying to think of names for me. Wyatt Morgan Cooper. My son. He was 7.2 lbs at birth, and he is sweet, and soft, and healthy and I am beyond happy. As a gay kid, I never thought it would be possible to have a child, and I’m grateful for all those who have paved the way, and for the doctors and nurses and everyone involved in my son's birth. Most of all, I am grateful to a remarkable surrogate who carried Wyatt, and watched over him lovingly, and tenderly, and gave birth to him. It is an extraordinary blessing - what she, and all surrogates give to families who cant have children. My surrogate has a beautiful family of her own, a wonderfully supportive husband, and kids, and I am incredibly thankful for all the support they have given Wyatt and me. My family is blessed to have this family in our lives I do wish my mom and dad and my brother, Carter, were alive to meet Wyatt, but I like to believe they can see him. I imagine them all together, arms around each other, smiling and laughing, happy to know that their love is alive in me and in Wyatt, and that our family continues.

A post shared by andersoncooper (@andersoncooper) on

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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