Anderson Cooper recently talked to Andy Cohen about Star Jones’ accusations that he opened up about his sexuality to boost the ratings of his show, and things got tense very quickly.
Cooper came out earlier this year via email to a Daily Beast journalist, who had asked him about his thoughts on people in the public eye going public with their homosexuality. The email was then posted online, where it quickly made the rounds on social media sites and was quoted on various news outlets.
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. I have always been very open and honest about this part of my life with my friends, my family, and my colleagues. In a perfect world, I don’t think it’s anyone else’s business, but I do think there is value in standing up and being counted. I’m not an activist, but I am a human being and I don’t give that up by being a journalist, he wrote.
“If I was wanting to boost ratings, I would’ve waited to announce it on like ‘a very special episode’ that would’ve been promo’d for weeks and weeks,” Cooper said. “There would’ve been commercials [that said] ‘Anderson’s huge announcement,’ and you would’ve had a cutaway of the audience [gasping]. But instead, I was in Africa on assignment for 60 Minutes. I sent an email to a friend of mine who put it on a website.”
Cooper said he couldn’t believe that Jones, of all people, would attack someone for an alleged ratings ploy when she herself has been guilty of it in the past…and he got specific.
“I gave no interviews about it. I never talked about it. I wasn’t even on the air for days afterward. So suddenly Star Jones—who, as memory serves, in terms of boosting ratings I seem to recall her hawking her wedding like every single day to get free products when she was on The View, and I seem to recall her lying about her gastric bypass surgery and making everybody else lie about it as well–so for her to suddenly emerge out of the shadows and suddenly attack me for this, I couldn’t believe it.”
Jones has been invited on Cooper’s show as a guest, but she (wisely) declined. Earlier today, she responded to his comments by posting one of her own on Twitter.
I was wrong. @andersoncooper didn’t come out as a ratings ploy. He used ME talking about him coming out @todayshow as a ratings ploy. #mybad
