Watch: Anderson Cooper Says Being Gay 'One of the Great Blessings of My Life'

Out CNN anchor Anderson Cooper responded to a questions submitted to him at the "Ask Anderson (Almost) Anything" segment of "Full Circle" that wondered how old he was when he knew he was gay, and how old he was when he came out.

The questions came from a viewer identified as "Nickie." The 53-year-old Cooper tackled the queries on Jan. 11, People magazine reported.

"I was probably... I don't know, seven, when I kind of realized that I... I'm not sure I knew the word 'gay' at the time, but when I realized something was up, something was different," Cooper recalled. "It was probably - yeah, six or seven."

"I told some friends in high school," Cooper added, addressing Nickie's second question. "But I think I really truly accepted it and just kind of, really, not just accepted it, but fully embraced it, and came around to really loving the fact that I was gay would probably be right after college. I kind of struggled even in my teenage years, certainly, but even a little in college - like, not sure. A lot of the plans, the things I wanted to do, at the time you couldn't be gay."

For instance, a CNN article on the segment reported, a career in the military wasn't in the cards at the time for anyone who was out of the closet. Nor was the whole world necessarily accessible to an openly LGBTQ person.

"I felt like there were a lot of places I would be limited in traveling to for safety reasons," Cooper said. "I felt like there were a lot of limitations on it. And it wasn't what I envisioned for my life... I imagined a family, and getting married, and all the things which weren't possible at the time. So, It took a while to kind of fully embrace it."

After college, though, Cooper said, he came to the conclusion that, "I don't want to waste any more time worrying about this and sort of wishing I was some other way."

Cooper earned a Bachelor of Arts from Yale University in 1989. It wasn't until 2012 that he publicly acknowledged being gay, by which time he was well established as a CNN anchor, having hosted his own show, "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees," since 2003.

Now, though, Cooper finds himself at a place where, he said, "I think being gay is one of the great blessings of my life... it's made me a better person, and it's made me a better reporter," because, he said, when one grows up "feeling like you're on the outside of things... you see society from a slightly different view, and I think that can be very valuable, and impact how you treat other people and how you see things."

To see the clip, click on this link.