The Bravo host opens up about his thought process behind becoming a dad.
Andy Cohen has had fatherhood on his mind for quite a while.
"It was always in the back of my head, and I’d be at friends’ houses and they’d be tucking in their kids and I was like, ‘I need this in my life,’” the 50-year-old Bravo host told Today show co-anchors Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie on Tuesday morning. "I was getting to a point in my life where I was looking at where am I going and where am I headed and what do I want for the rest of my life?"
Kotb, who adopted her daughter, Haley Joy, in early 2017, asked Cohen why he chose surrogacy over adoption.
"I was fortunate to have the means to be able to. It can be expensive and complicated,” he explained. "And I just said, 'I’m going to do this, I’m going to try to do this,' and I did. It’s incredible to me as I’ve now learned that surrogacy is illegal in many states and I don’t understand why it’s illegal in New York and New Jersey, which is why I went to California. That’s where my wonderful surrogate was, who I owe so much to.”
He added, "It’s also illegal for gay people to adopt in certain places."
He praised Kotb for her inspiration, having also welcomed a child later in life.
"Once I decided to do it, I was in. You were a great help to me and inspiring to me as you and I talked about it, Hoda,” Cohen said. "I was also wondering, 'Can I do this at this moment in my life?' I’m 50, let’s be real here.”
He added that penning his two autobiographical diaries had a key role in his decision to have a child.
"Publishing two books that were diaries about my life really caused me to look at how I was living my life every day,” he noted. "I published three years of my diaries. I was like, ‘Wow, I could keep putting the same book out every year or I could do something different. I don’t think this is all there is for me.’"
Cohen welcomed his son, Benjamin Allen Cohen, earlier this month via surrogate. For more, watch the clip below:
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