Long rumored, never confirmed, Anderson Cooper finally revealed that he is, in fact, gay.
Cooper penned an open letter to personal friend and Daily Beast blogger Andrew Sullivan, in response to a recent Entertainment Weekly story about gay public figures.
“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,” said the long time CNN host and reporter.
Cooper has always refused to comment on the matter in the past, saying “as long as a journalist shows fairness and honesty in his or her work, their private life shouldn’t matter.”
In the letter, Cooper said his reason for coming out publicly was to dispel the insinuation that he was hiding his sexual orientation out of shame, fear or discomfort. Cooper emphatically refuted the implication.
Cooper gave Sullivan permission to publish the article. “I still consider myself a reserved person and I hope this doesn’t mean an end to a small amount of personal space. But I do think visibility is important, more important than preserving my reporter’s shield of privacy,” said Cooper.
The post on Sullivan’s blog garnered nearly 2,000 likes on Facebook in the first half hour of being published.
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