NBC NEWS: Anderson Cooper was 45 years old when he came out publicly in 2012, but this week, a CNN viewer wanted to know what age the newsman was when he first realized he was gay and accepted it for himself.

In his answer, Cooper explained that those were two very different things that happened at very different ages.

On Monday's episode of "Full Circle." he explained, "I was probably 7, when I kind of realized. I'm not sure I knew the word 'gay' at the time, but I realized something was up, something was different."

As he grew older Cooper discovered there were things he simply couldn't do, like join the military at a time when homosexuality was considered grounds for discharge or travel abroad to areas where it remained illegal and often dangerous to be gay. And that wasn't all. (To read the full article, Click Here.)