Being gay is a ‘blessing,’ sez Anderson

Out, proud and blessed! Anderson Cooper, the openly gay star anchor of CNN’s prime time, talked about embracing his sexuality in a recent episode of “Full Circle.”

Even though the 53-year-old journalist publicly came out as gay only about 10 years ago, he’s known that he was different since he was a little boy.

During a Q and A on Monday’s episode of the network’s daily streaming news show, the host of “Anderson Cooper 360°” responded to a question posed by a viewer who wanted to know how old he was when he accepted that he was gay.

“I’m not sure I knew the word ‘gay’ at the time, but I realized something was up, something was different. It was probably, yeah, 6 or 7,” Cooper (inset) said.

Although the Emmy, GLAADand Peabody Award-winning journalist said the “struggled” with his sexuality when he was a teen, he’d later completely change his attitude — and his life — when he learned to accept himself.

“[Being gay] wasn’t what

I envisioned for my life,” he said. “I imagined a family and getting married and all those things, which weren’t possible at the time.”

But as he accepted who he was, everything changed. “And not just accepted it, but fully embraced it and came around to really loving the fact that I was gay right after college,” said Cooper whose first son, Wyatt, was born on April 27. He added it was “about a year after college [when] I realized, ‘I don’t want to waste any more time worrying about this’ and sort of wishing I was some other way.”

Now, he sees being gay as “one of the great blessings of my life.”

“And it’s made me a better person; it’s made me a better reporter. When you grow up feeling that you’re on the outside of things, you’re kind of an observer of things or not necessarily in the mainstream, you see society from a slightly different view,” he said.

“And I think that can be very valuable and can impact how you treat other people and how you see things. 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,” Cooper added.