Anderson Cooper has officially confirmed what the internet already suspected: he’s gay. Cooper came out in an email sent to Andrew Sullivan of The Daily Beast.

In the email, he wrote,

“Recently, however, I’ve begun to consider whether the unintended outcomes of maintaining my privacy outweigh personal and professional principle. It’s become clear to me that by remaining silent on certain aspects of my personal life for so long, I have given some the mistaken impression that I am trying to hide something — something that makes me uncomfortable, ashamed or even afraid. This is distressing because it is simply not true.”

The full email can be read at The Daily Beast’s website.