CNN anchor Chris Cuomo was boating in the Hamptons with his wife Cristina and their children over the weekend when he noticed a man in distress. Swimming in a rip current in the Peconic River near Shelter Island, the man told Cuomo he wasn’t well.
So the 45-year-old New Day host threw him a life preserver.
“It wasn’t enough,” Cuomo shared on Tuesday’s program. “So I didn’t think. I went in and got him. It was hard for us to swim across, but we eventually did.”
New York Post’s Page Six broke the news late Monday.
Cuomo’s co-hosts chided him for not telling them what happened.
“Here’s my issue,” remarked Michaela Pereira on Tuesday’s program. “I asked you yesterday how your weekend was, and you didn’t say a word.”
Cuomo said he had no intention of revealing his heroism. “In truth, I was leaving it alone because I didn’t want to reveal the guy,” he said. “I didn’t want to embarrass him.”
Here’s what went down.
“He went for a swim, he didn’t judge the current right,” said Cuomo, flanked by his adoring female co-hosts. “As he came by us, I said, ‘Hey how ya doing?’ He didn’t look right. He said, ‘I’m not well.'”
Co-host Alisyn Camerota wanted a takeaway from this potentially deadly incident.
“The lesson is don’t jump in fast moving water,” said Cuomo. “I didn’t think the guy was going to make it. He didn’t look good.”
The host assured that he would’ve never talked about it, but someone called it in to a paper.
Besides, said Cuomo, he would’ve embellished the story.
“It was 10 people and then a shark bit me in the leg!” he joked.