MANHATTAN — Anderson Cooper is gay.
The silver-haired CNN anchor officially came out in an email to The Daily Beast's Andrew Sullivan on Monday.
"The fact is, I'm gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn’t be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud," he wrote in the note in response to Sullivan's question about celebrities coming out. "I love, and I am loved."
The statement comes in the middle of an email to Sullivan, where Cooper discussed how he had mulled over and reversed his initial decision to keep his sexuality private.
"It’s become clear to me that by remaining silent on certain aspects of my personal life for so long," he wrote, "I have given some the mistaken impression that I am trying to hide something - something that makes me uncomfortable, ashamed or even afraid. This is distressing because it is simply not true. ... and I believe there is value in making clear where I stand."
Sullivan published Cooper's email in full, with Cooper's permission, on The Daily Beast.
