| Net Worth: | $50 million |
|---|---|
| Salary: | $10 million per year |
| Age/Date of Birth: | June 2, 1968 (55 years old) |
| Height: | 5 feet, 9 inches (1.75 m) |
| Ethnicity/Race: | Ashkenazi Jewish |
| Nationality: | American |
| Wife or Girlfriend: | Anderson Cooper (Partner) |
| Parents: | Father: Lou Cohen Mother: Evelyn Cohen |
Andy Cohen made most of his millions after he helped revive the Bravo network, transforming it into one of the biggest players in the reality TV show business. From then on, he became a Bravo staple and continues to mint big from the pop-culture focused network.
Cohen is particularly popular for being the host of the Bravo late-night show, Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, for which he receives a $2 million annual salary. He serves as the executive producer of many other Bravo productions, including the very successful Real Housewives franchise. Here is a look at his early life and career before we discuss his sexual orientation and how he built his $50 million empire.
His Early Life and Career Beginnings
Andrew Joseph Cohen was born on June 2, 1968, in St. Louis, Missouri. He graduated from Clayton High School in 1986 and earned a BA in broadcast journalism from Boston University. His internship at CBS News turned into a 10-year stint with the media outlet, a time during which he rapidly rose up the ranks to become the senior producer of the morning news program, The Early Show. Cohen also worked on other shows like CBS This Morning and 48 Hours.
After calling it quits with CBS in 2000, Cohen was hired by pop culture and arts cable network TRIO as its vice president of original programming. At TRIO, Cohen was involved in the production of successful documentaries like; Easy Riders/Raging Bulls, Brilliant, But Cancelled, Brilliant Republicans, and The N-Word. For the latter, he won a Peabody Award in 2004.
The Truth About Andy Cohen’s Sexual Orientation
Andy Cohen is an openly gay man. The television talk show host came out as a gay person while in the University and he describes the experience as one of the scariest things he has ever done. He said it was accidental because his mother found a letter he had written to another gay person and confronted him about it. But surprisingly to him, she was very understanding about it all and joked about her not even liking the woman he was going to marry in the future. Right now, he is the only (openly) gay person hosting a late-night TV show in the United States.
After many years of waiting to have a child with a partner, Cohen welcomed a son in 2019 with the help of a surrogate. His child, Benjamin Allen Cohen, was born on February 4, 2019. The TV host, who is well into his 50s, explained that he did not want to wait any longer to become a father, and as such did not mind doing it as a single parent.
“It’s not something in your mind – ‘Oh, I want to do this alone.’ But I like being alone. I didn’t want to wait. To me, it would have to be a very special person to say, ‘Let’s do this together.’,” Cohen told People. As a result of his child, Andy Cohen says he now has a different approach to dating. He is now looking for a different kind of guy, the type that “you want to bring home to Mom or bring home to your son.”
All The People He Has Dated or Has Been Linked To
Clifton Dassuncao
In 2016, Andy Cohen was reported to have been dating Harvard Ph.D. student Clifton Dassuncao, a man who Radar Online said was 19-years younger than him. Clifton was at the time working at Harvard University as a researcher.
While Cohen never publicly talked about the relationship, it seems very likely that the two were once an item. Not many other people also knew about the relationship, including Clifton’s dad who told the publication that he was surprised to hear about it but would not oppose his son’s decision. The world only got to learn about the relationship after Clifton hinted at it by posting a photo of the duo during a Watch What Happens Live taping. The pair were also later seen together on the yacht of billionaire Barry Diller in the Caribbean.
John Hill
Musical theater actor John Hill is another person known to have dated Andy Cohen. The openly gay Texas native was the most recent person to have dated the TV host but their relationship has since ended. While it is not known how the two met or when they began dating, the pair appear to still be friends and are on excellent terms even though they have since moved on to other people.
A testament to this fact is that Hill, who is most famous for appearing in Broadway musicals like Hairspray and The Boy from Oz but is also a TV producer, continues to work with Cohen. He serves as a producer of Cohen’s Watch What Happens Live, writes for the FOX dating game show Love Connection where Cohen serves as host, and also hosts a radio show called The Feels on Cohen’s Sirius XM Channel.
Lance Bass
American singer, dancer, actor, and producer Lance Bass, who rose to fame as the bass singer for the American pop boy band NSYNC, is another person to have at least had a fling with Cohen. Bass came out as gay in July 2006 after long media speculation about his sexual orientation.
Cohen revealed that he and Bass had been involved in some sort of a relationship when he said during an episode of Watch What Happens Live that the most famous person he had ever slept with was Bass. The former boy band member later confirmed the statement.
Anderson Cooper
CNN bigwig Anderson Cooper is another openly gay person on television. The New York Times famously described him as “the most prominent openly gay journalist on American television.” Cooper has dated quite a few people over the years, one of whom happens to have been Andy Cohen who he is best friends with at the moment. Since 2018, the pair have served as co-hosts of CNN’s New Year’s Eve coverage and have also been on a national tour to perform their conversational stage show, AC2.
Cohen revealed their past in an interview with E! News, saying they met decades ago on a blind date. “Not many people know this, but the way Anderson and I met about 20 years ago is we were set up on a blind date. It didn’t take. It just didn’t work. We’re meant to be best friends… we’re meant to be good friends and not boyfriends.”
Analysis of Andy Cohen’s Net Worth and Various Ways He Makes His Money
Bravo TV Exploits
When Bravo purchased TRIO in 2004, Andy Cohen retained his position with the television network. As an executive at Bravo, serving as the Executive Vice President of Original Programming and Development, he was involved in the production of a series of highly acclaimed unscripted shows and specials. Some of them include reality cooking competition television show Top Chef, The Real Housewives franchise, Being Bobby Brown, The Rachel Zoe Project, The Millionaire Matchmaker, and Project Runway among a host of others.
In 2009, Cohen began earning money as the host of the now-popular talk show, Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen (WWHL), which aired weekdays at midnight. The show has welcomed numerous A-listers including Jennifer Lawrence, Lady Gaga, Mariah Carey, Cher, and Oprah Winfrey.
While he resigned from his head of development position with Bravo in 2013, Andy Cohen continued to host WWHL which expanded into a weeknight series. His current contract to host the show runs until 2021. The TV host also writes a popular blog that can be found on BravoTv.com.
Other TV Hosting Gigs
Andy Cohen has served as a host of many other shows. The most notable of them all is the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants; he hosted the 2011, 2012, and 2013 Miss USA beauty pageants, as well as the Miss Universe 2011, and Miss Universe 2012 pageants. Cohen declined the opportunity of co-hosting the 2013 Miss Universe pageant because it was held in Russia who at the time had just adopted anti-gay laws.
Together with his friend and fellow TV personality Anderson Cooper, he formed the national tour, AC2: An Intimate Evening with Anderson Cooper & Andy Cohen. On the tour, the duo explored a wide range of topics at sold-out venues. From the AC2 tour, the duo have raised over $250,000 to benefit the victims of the Orlando gay club shooting.
Other projects he has hosted or co-hosted include the live edition of Hollywood Game Night (New Year’s Eve Game Night) and New Year’s Eve with Carson Daly in 2015, Fox’s Love Connection in 2017, and CNN’s New Year’s Eve coverage alongside Cooper since 2017.
His Work on Radio
In 2015, Andy Cohen launched his own radio channel called RadioAndy on the popular SiriusXM broadcasting company. The channel is focused on everything pop-culture and features shows hosted by Cohen like Andy Cohen Live and Andy Cohen’s Deep & Shallow. The channel also features shows hosted by guests like his former partner John Hill, Jim Parsons, Sandra Bernhard, and Jonathan Alter, among others.
Books and Writings
As mentioned above, Andy Cohen writes a popular blog that can be found on BravoTv.com. He has also written a couple of books, the first of which was the New York Times bestseller Most Talkative: Stories from the Front Lines of Pop Culture that was published in 2012.
Cohen has since written two more New York Times bestsellers, The Andy Cohen Diaries: A Deep Look at a Shallow Year (2014) and 2016’s Superficial: More Adventures from the Andy Cohen Diaries. In 2016, Andy launched his own book imprint, “Andy Cohen Books” under Henry Holt and Company.
Real Estate Holdings
Andy Cohen made the news in 2019 when he paid $5.4 million for a half-acre oceanfront (125 feet of ocean frontage) property in the Hamptons community of Amagansett. The TV host with a net worth of $50 million appeared to have gotten a good deal on the property as it was once listed at $7.3 million before the asking price was reduced to $6 million.
Prior to this purchase, he owned an apartment in a West Village building located at 2 Horatio Street. Cohen paid an undisclosed amount for the first unit he bought in the building before buying three more units to make it all into a contiguous spread that is now estimated to be worth between $6 and $8 million.
Recap of All His Source of Income
- Earned his first millions as an executive at Bravo TV
- Has produced a wide range of successful TV shows and documentaries
- Receives large paychecks for hosting different shows
- Owns a radio channel on SiriusXM
- He has published New York Times bestselling books
- Real estate holdings in millions of dollars
Awards and Accolades Cohen Has Received For His Work
Andy Cohen has received a good number of awards (Emmy and Peabody Awards) for the outstanding work he has done over the years as either a TV producer or TV host. He has also received other recognitions for just being the fabulous man that he is, like being listed in Out magazine’s list of Most Powerful Gay People from 2012 to 2016, and GQ’s “25 Best Dressed Men of the Year” in 2012. Other awards he has won include:
- 2004 – Peabody Award – Executive Producer of The N-Word documentary on Trio
- 2007 – Peabody Award – Executive Producer of Project Runway on Bravo
- 2010 – Emmy Award for Outstanding Competitive Reality Series – Executive Producer of Top Chef
- 2019 – Vito Russo Award at the 30th GLAAD Media Awards
| Profile Summary | |
|---|---|
| First Name: | Andrew |
| Last Name: | Cohen |
| Also Known As: | Andy |
| Sex/Gender: | Male |
| Profession: | Radio and television talk show host, producer, and writer |
| Famous For: | Late night talk show, "Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen" |
| Colleges/Universities Attended: | Boston University, |
| Educational Qualifications: | BSc degree in broadcast journalism |
| Religion: | Judaism |
| Birthday & Zodiac |
|
| Age/Date of Birth: | June 2, 1968 (55 years old) |
| Zodiac Sign: | Gemini |
| Birth Place: | St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. |
| Nationality: | American |
| Ethnicity/Race: | Ashkenazi Jewish |
| Country of Residence: | United States of America (USA) |
| Physical Attributes |
|
| Height: | 5 feet, 9 inches (1.75 m) |
| Weight: | 78 kg ( 172 lbs) |
| Eye Colour: | Dark Brown |
| Hair Color: | Grey |
| Other Body Measurements: | Chest – 45 in(114cm) Arms / Biceps – 16in (41cm) Waist – 35 in (89 cm) |
| Relationships | |
| Marital Status: | Dating |
| Spouse/Partner: | Anderson Cooper (Partner) |
| Family and Relatives |
|
| Father: | Lou Cohen |
| Mother: | Evelyn Cohen |
| Children: | Benjamin Allen Cohen (Son, b. Feb. 4, 2019) |
| Siblings: | Emily Rosenfeld (Sister) |
| Other Relatives: | N/A |
| Net Worth | |
| Estimated Net Worth: | $50 million |
| Salary: | About $10 million per year |
| Source of Wealth: | TV shows |
