Despite the majority of people in today's society being accepting of varying sexualities, life wasn't always easy being out of the closet in the past, and Anderson Cooper shared some details of what it was like growing up for him.
Navigating the world as a homosexual man wasn't something that Cooper says was a breeze. In fact, the CNN host revealed on a special episode, Full Circle, how long it took him to truly accept and love himself.
Anderson Cooper opens up about accepting himself
Anderson Cooper is revealing the moment that he truly accepted himself, and explored the journey that got him there, revealing to viewers watching his CNN special Full Circle that it was a challenging time for him.
Cooper admits that he always knew there was something "different" about himself, and answered a fan question regarding when he felt he "truly knew" he was gay.
"I mean, I was probably, I don’t know, seven, when I kind of realized — I’m not sure I knew the word 'gay' at the time, but I realized something was up. Something was different," he said.
Cooper then said he only told a few people in high school about his sexual orientation, but it wasn't until his college years that he really started to open up.
"I think I really, truly accepted it — and not just accepted it, but fully embraced it and you know, came around to really loving the fact that I was gay — would probably be right after college," he revealed.
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"You know, I kind of struggled in my teenage years, certainly, but even a little in college," he added.
Cooper said that there were a few things that being gay prohibited him from doing during those years, such as working for the US Army, which declared homosexuality to be "incompatible with military service" in 1982.
"It felt like there were a lot of limitations on it, and it wasn’t what I envisioned for my life," he said, sharing his intent to have a military career.
"Or, I imagined a family and getting married. All those things which weren’t possible at the time," he added, noting that after coming out fully in 2012, a weight had been lifted, and since then now has a son.
Cooper continued, "I thought, I don’t want to waste any more time worrying about this and sort of wishing I was some other way."
He then added that he's since "fully embraced" who he is, saying, "I want to embrace who I am, and as I’ve said before, I think being gay is one of the great blessings of my life."
He added that these struggles had "made me a better person, and it’s made me a better reporter."
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"Especially when you grow up, kind of feeling like you’re on the outside of things, and you’re kind of an observer of things or not necessarily in the mainstream, you see society from a slightly different view. And I think that can be very valuable and can impact how you treat other people and how you see things," he explained.
"It’s enabled me to love the people that I’ve loved and have the life that I’ve had, so I’m very blessed," he added.
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