Anderson Cooper has reflected on the “mortifying” experience he had with Madonna, when the Queen of Pop began spanking and humping him on stage.
The professional journalist recalled the moment he attended a Madonna concert back in 2015, in a new interview – describing how the singer invited him onto the stage with her in an unexpected twist.
The moment took place during the musician’s ‘Rebel Heart’ concert at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, where she jokingly pulled the CNN host into the spotlight and began spanking and humping him while she sang ‘Unapologetic Bitch’.
Footage of the moment – which also saw Cooper awkwardly trying to dance to the track – soon made its way online, and eight years on, the journalist says he is still “mortified” by the experience.
“That [moment,] I choose to forget. I’m mortified,” Cooper told Kelly Ripa during an interview with Sirius XM’s podcast Let’s Talk Off Camera. “I mean, I loved the whole idea, I love the experience of it. I don’t love the video that exists of it, the reality.”
“I didn’t know what the hell was going on,” he added, recalling his dance moves while on the stage. “I was terrible. I danced terribly. It was mortifying.
“We all watch people perform at these stages and they make it look like it’s all so natural and normal… Even the way they’re like dancing, running, walking down the stage. I [was] like, ‘I don’t, do I skip?’”
The night didn’t end there for Cooper, as during the set, Madonna also made him wait on stage, while she gifted him a banana in front of the 19,000-strong audience.
“All of a sudden you find yourself like… you’re standing on this thing, and then she hands you a banana, and right before that she pushed me over and humped me. Which I didn’t expect it all” he told the host.
“So I open it up and I start to peel it and eat the banana, and then all of a sudden I start lowering down on this little electronic elevator disappearing on the stage just like eating this banana.
“I don’t know. To this day, I don’t know what happened.”
As reported by Billboard, this wasn’t the first time that the two had met. Back in 2013, gay advocacy group GLAAD hired Madonna to present the journalist with the Vito Russo Award – which salutes openly gay media professionals.
Additionally, the year after he appeared on stage with the Queen of Pop, Cooper also took to the stage at the 2016 Billboard Woman Of The Year event, and introduced Madonna as the person of honour.
In other Madonna news, earlier this month the artist celebrated her 65th birthday, and told fans that it feels “great to be alive”. The update came following the recent bacterial infection she faced, which saw her admitted to intensive care and forced to postpone numerous tour dates.
“It’s great to be Alive………… .. and Amazing to Be able to put on my dancing shoes and Celebrate my Birthday! Im So Grateful,” she wrote in the post. “Thank you Lisbon and to all who made it possible!”
Her rescheduled ‘Celebration Tour’ dates will now kick off in London in October, with the rescheduled North American shows now taking place after the UK and European leg of her tour.