San Francisco (AFP) – Netflix said Tuesday it has acquired the whole works of acclaimed children’s author Roald Dahl, creator of such classics as “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and “Matilda.”

The streaming giant said it had bought The Roald Dahl Story Company — the family firm which owns the late British author’s copyright.

Netflix in 2018 signed a deal with the company to create animated series based on 16 Dahl books.

“This acquisition builds on the partnership we started three years ago to create a slate of animated TV series,” Netflix co-chief executive Ted Sarandos and Luke Kelly, managing director of the RDSC and Dahl’s grandson, said in a joint statement.

Under the previous deal, Oscar-winning filmmaker Taika Waititi and “Zootropolis” screenwriter Phil Johnston are working on a series based on the world of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and an adaptation of “Matilda the Musical” is underway.

“These projects opened our eyes to a much more ambitious venture — the creation of a unique universe across animated and live action films and TV, publishing, games, immersive experiences, live theater, consumer products and more,” Netflix said.

Dahl died in 1990 aged 74 after penning several classic titles including “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “Fantastic Mr Fox,” “Matilda,” “The Twits,” “The Witches” and “The BFG.”

His books have been translated into 63 languages and sold more than 300 million copies worldwide.

“These stories and their messages of the power and possibility of young people have never felt more pertinent,” the statement said.

“As we bring these timeless tales to more audiences in new formats, we’re committed to maintaining their unique spirit and their universal themes of surprise and kindness, while also sprinkling some fresh magic into the mix.”

No financial details of the deal were given.

The Hollywood Reporter in 2018 quoted sources as saying the licensing deal covering just 16 Dahl books cost Netflix more than $100 million.

Several Dahl works have already been adapted for the big screen, including “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “The Witches,” “Fantastic Mr Fox” and “The BFG.”

Elon Musk has revealed that there were “challenges” with the toilet during SpaceX’s first private trip.

The Tesla boss took to social media to reveal the problems but did not elaborate on what they actually were. Musk did say that future missions will “definitely” include “upgraded toilets” to make sure they don’t happen again.

Musk had met with the crew after they touched down in Florida where he was informed of the problems, even though the discussion pre-flight centred on how good the facilities were.

They were located just beneath the ‘cupola’, a huge built-in window, allowing the crew to look out into space as they relieved themselves.

Jared Isaacman, the billionaire who funded the trip, added that the toilet was covered by a curtain to offer some privacy for those on board.

SpaceX hasn’t disclosed much about how the toilet works but training on it was part of the preparation regime that the four-strong crew had to go through prior to the flight.

Musk also intends to add other improvements for future voyages, including a “little oven for heating food” after the passengers were forced to eat cold pizza.

The tech guru added that the ship will include a WiFi connection through SpaceX’s Starlink satellites.

The SpaceX venture concluded on Saturday (18.09.21) and Musk welcomed the crew home with a $50 million donation to the children’s charity St Jude, as the passengers were aiming to raise $200 million for the St Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Tennessee.

Mexico City (AFP) – Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador urged the United States on Wednesday to act quickly to tackle the causes of the migrant crisis affecting the two neighboring countries.

“Enough talking, it’s time to act,” Lopez Obrador told reporters as thousands of Haitian and other migrants massed on Mexico’s northern border seeking access into the United States.

Mexico and Central American countries were still waiting for several billion dollars pledged by Washington for economic development to reduce the need for migrants to flee poverty, he said.

“There was a commitment that they were going to invest four billion — two billion for Central America and two billion for Mexico. Nothing has come — nothing,” Lopez Obrador said.

At the same time he added that US President Joe Biden “is interested” in solving the problem and said he was hopeful there would be a regional agreement on economic development.

The Mexican leader has repeatedly proposed expanding one of his domestic welfare programs into Central America with the aim of generating 1.2 million jobs in the region.

He has also proposed allowing participants to qualify for a US work visa after three years.

The US authorities have begun to repatriate Haitians by air from the Texas border city of Del Rio, prompting a warning from the United Nations that people with genuine asylum claims may be at risk.

Tens of thousands more migrants are stranded in the southern Mexican city of Tapachula, waiting for documents that would allow them to continue north.

An emoji is worth a thousand words – and our chat vocabulary is about to get far, far richer. Three dozen new emojis are set to appear in our smartphone chats, with a disco ball, melting face and troll among the highlights.

The Unicode Consortium, responsible for emoji development, has announced 37 new emojis – mostly facial reactions, hand gestures and icons for nature, food, drink and leisure activities.

An “I-can’t-watch” face and a saluting emoji are likely to be some of the most popular additions, as is one face trying to hold back tears and another melting into the ground. There’s also a hand with fingers crossed and a pair of hands forming a heart.

The emoji powers-that-be meanwhile assume there will be occasions where you’ll need one of the following: a life preserver, a car wheel, a jar, a troll, a disco ball, a playground slide, an X-ray picture and an identity card.

Over in the nature section, there will be a coral, a lotus flower, beans and bird’s nests. Oh, and you can also get that last one with eggs and without eggs.

This year, however, only a few people will probably be able to write messages with the new emojis. By the end of the year at the earliest and then in the course of 2022, the new Unicode 14 keyboard standard will have been incorporated into all operating systems.

By Julia Harte

(Reuters) – A San Antonio physician who announced he gave an abortion to a woman in defiance of a new Texas law was sued in Texas state court on Monday by two plaintiffs from other states who want to test the law’s constitutionality.

Alan Braid said in an opinion piece published in The Washington Post on Saturday that he had broken a new Texas law which banned abortions beyond the point where rhythmic contracting of fetal cardiac tissue could be detected. The law leaves enforcement of the ban to citizens, rewarding them at least $10,000 if they successfully sue anyone who helped provide such an abortion and paying their court costs.

In the cases filed on Monday, the state would be paying the costs of testing the law. One of the plaintiffs who sued Braid, Oscar Stilley, said in a phone call with Reuters on Monday that he opposes the Texas law and wanted to be the first person to force a court to assess its legality.

Texas’ new abortion restrictions violate women’s constitutional rights, Stilley said.

“I think it’s a decision between her and her doctor,” he said when asked whether he supported giving women the right to choose abortion access.

Stilley, a disbarred lawyer, is on home confinement serving the 12th year of a 15-year sentence for tax evasion and conspiracy.

The other plaintiff, Felipe Gomez, a suspended lawyer from Illinois, alleged in his complaint that “the Act is illegal as written and as applied here.” Gomez did not immediately return a call for comment.

Monday’s lawsuits are to date the most direct test of the legality of the Texas abortion ban, which is one of the most restrictive such laws in the United States. Abortion rights groups and the U.S. Justice Department have also sued Texas over the law in federal court, saying it violates a woman’s constitutional right to abortion before the fetus is viable.

Braid’s office in San Antonio referred requests for comment to the Center for Reproductive Rights, which has pledged to represent Braid in any lawsuit.

Asked for comment, the Center forwarded a statement from its senior counsel, Marc Hearron, who acknowledged that the law enables anyone to sue people who aid or abet abortions beyond the prescribed limit. “We are starting to see that happen, including by out-of-state claimants,” the statement read.

Texas Right to Life, a state anti-abortion group, did not return a call for comment.

(Reporting by Julia Harte and David Thomas; Editing by Stephen Coates)

By Kanishka Singh

(Reuters) – George Holliday, the plumber who shot video of Los Angeles police officers beating Black motorist Rodney King in 1991, has died at a hospital in California due to complications from COVID-19, a friend said.

The video that Holliday captured symbolized police brutality and racial injustice and was an early example of the power of citizen journalism, where a bystander documented a momentous event that might otherwise have been overlooked.

Holliday, who was believed to be in his early 60s, was hospitalized with the coronavirus for about a month and died on Sunday, his friend, Robert Wollenweber, said on Monday. The death was first reported by TMZ.

Long before the advent of the Black Lives Matter movement, the name Rodney King was synonymous with the use of excessive force in policing minority groups. King, then 25, was battered by a squad of police officers after a traffic stop in March 1991, an incident caught in graphic detail on Holliday’s video.

The video of King’s beating, shot in grainy black and white, was played on hundreds of television stations. The acquittal of the four LA police officers by a jury led to riots in Los Angeles over six days in 1992, in which more than 50 people were killed and some $1 billion in damage was caused.

The four police officers were indicted later that year on federal civil rights charges, with two found guilty and sentenced to two years in prison. King, who died in 2012 at the age of 47, was awarded $3.8 million in damages.

Memories of the King video resurfaced following the 2020 death of George Floyd, an African-American who died after a police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes, a killing that a bystander captured on video, sparking months of protests against police brutality and racism across the world.

On March 3, 1991, Holliday stood on his balcony and used his Sony Video8 Handycam to record the police officers beating King. Holliday called the police to find out what had happened. When they declined to share information with him, he rang the KTLA news station.

King – who was on parole for robbery – had led police on a high-speed chase through Los Angeles. Later, he was charged with driving under the influence, according to NPR.

When police stopped him, King was ordered out of the car. Los Angeles Police Department officers kicked him repeatedly and beat him with batons. The video also showed that several policemen stood by watching and commenting on the beating.

King’s injuries resulted in skull fractures, broken bones and teeth, and permanent brain damage, NPR reported.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Billy Porter’s diamond Emmys necklace cost a whopping $1 million.

The ‘Pose’ star – who lost out to ‘The Crown’s Josh O’Connor for the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series prize at the weekend – walked the red carpet in an all-black outfit featuring long sleeves, gloves, trousers and dramatic ruffled wings on his arms, topped off with dazzling Lorraine Schwartz diamonds.

And the jeweller has since revealed to Page Six Style that the lavish piece – which boasts 49.93 carats of white diamonds and 34.78 carats of emeralds, set in 18-karat white gold – has an epic price tag.

The ‘Cinderella’ star also rocked six rings by H.Crowne, one of which dropped off his finger on the red carpet, but was quickly rescued by the actor, plus two diamond bracelets and sparkling ear cuffs.

Billy revealed he originally planned for the outfit to look very different.

He said: “Interestingly enough, this was supposed to go all the way to the floor, this little piece, and it didn’t. I started just playing with shapes and stuff in the mirror and it was like, ‘Well, they feels like wings.'”

But Billy felt the outfit was appropriate for his role in movie musical ‘Cinderella’.

He quipped: “You know I am the fairy godmother!”

The 51-year-old star – who has gone viral with his bold ensembles at the Oscars, Met Gala, and Tonys – previously admitted he wants to send a “clear” message with his red carpet wear.

He said: “You know, I am now working with Ty Hunter who is my new stylist, and we really, through quarantine, have been able to just get a handle on and get in the driver’s seat of the train that took off.

“It just took off so quick that like, you know, I just wanted to make sure that what I’m saying as I walk onto these red carpets, into the events – as a walking piece of political art, that’s what I’m trying to be every time – that we’re clear.”

(Correct typo in first paragraph)

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reprimanded the world on Tuesday for the inequitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, describing it as an “obscenity” and giving the globe an “F in Ethics.”

Addressing the annual U.N. gathering of world leaders in New York, Guterres said images from some parts of the world of expired and unused vaccines in the garbage told “the tale of our times” – with the majority of the wealthier world immunised while more than 90% of Africa has not even received one dose.

“This is a moral indictment of the state of our world. It is an obscenity. We passed the science test. But we are getting an F in Ethics,” Guterres told the U.N. General Assembly.

World leaders https://www.reuters.com/world/china/world-leaders-return-un-with-focus-pandemic-climate-2021-09-19 returned to New York this year after a virtual event last year during the pandemic. As the coronavirus is still raging, about a third of the 193 U.N. states are again sending videos, but presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers for the remainder have traveled to the United States.

Out of 5.7 billion doses of coronavirus vaccines administered around the world, only 2% have been in Africa. Guterres is pushing for a global plan to vaccinate 70% of the world by the first half of next year.

The secretary-general, who begins a second five-year term at the helm of the world body on Jan. 1, also warned of rising tensions between the world’s superpowers – China and the United States.

“I fear our world is creeping towards two different sets of economic, trade, financial and technology rules, two divergent approaches in the development of artificial intelligence – and ultimately two different military and geo-political strategies,” he said.

“This is a recipe for trouble. It would be far less predictable than the Cold War,” Guterres said.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols, Editing by Timothy Heritage)

Michael K. Williams, Cecily Tyson, and Ed Asner were among those remembered during the Primetime Emmy Awards’ annual In Memoriam segment on Sunday (19.09.21).

‘In Treatment’ actress Uzo Aduba took to the stage at LA Live in Los Angeles to introduce the tribute, which recognises the TV stars and creators who have passed away over the last 12 months, towards the end of the ceremony.

She said: “Over the past year, we have lost so many of our loved ones, but we treasure our memory of each of them, we honor their work, and we rejoice in having them in our lives.”

Uzo then introduced Leon Bridges and Jon Batiste to the stage, where they delivered an emotional performance of Leon’s song ‘River’ while the montage played on screens behind them.

Others recognised in the tribute included Dustin Diamond, Larry King, Markie Post, Charlie Robinson, Norm Macdonald, Olympia Dukakis, Christopher Plummer, Cloris Leachman, Jessica Walter, Alex Trebek, Charlie Robinson, Hal Holbrook, Norm Crosby, and Helen McCrory.

Awards bosses acknowledged that due to time constraints, not everyone from the TV world who has died this year would feature in the tribute, but highlighted the fact they have an extensive In Memoriam section on their website.

Earlier in the evening, Kerry Washington took the time to honour ‘The Wire’ actor Michael, who was found dead from an apparent overdose at the beginning of this month.

Introducing the nominees for the Supporting Actor in a Drama Series gong – which ultimately went to ‘The Crown’ actor Tobias Menzies – she highlighted the fact Michael was on the shortlist for his work in ‘Lovecraft Country’ and promised his “excellence and artistry” will live on.

She said: “The nominees for this next award astounded us with each of their uniquely memorable, remarkable performances this year.

“But I would like to take a moment to mention one in particular Michael K Williams Michael was – it’s crazy to say was – Michael was a brilliantly talented actor and a generous human being who has left us far too soon.

“Michael, I know you are here, you wouldn’t miss this, your excellence and artistry will endure. We love you.”

RuPaul has become the most Emmy-awarded Black person in history.

The 60-year-old star scored his 11th career win at the ceremony on Sunday (19.09.21) when ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ beat off competition from ‘The Masked Singer’, ‘Nailed It!’, ‘Top Chef’, and ‘The Voice’ to take the award for Outstanding Competition Program.

After thanking the Academy, the host dedicated the award to those who watch the show, as well as the “children” who compete.

He said: ““Wow, thank you so much to the Academy and all of you gorgeous people here tonight. All of the people at World of Wonder and Viacom-CBS who have been so wonderful, but really thanks to all of our lovely children on our show from around the world. They are so gracious to tell their stories of courage and how to navigate this difficult life, even more difficult today.

“This is for you and for you kids out there watching. You have a tribe that is waiting for you, we are waiting for you, baby. Come on to Mama Ru!”

Ru had picked up two other Emmys this year at the Primetime Creative Arts ceremony earlier this month, scoring wins for Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program and Outstanding Host for a Reality or Competition Program.

During his speech last week, he said, “I started in television 40 years ago on a public access station in Atlanta, Georgia. A little show called ‘The American Music Show.’ They were so kind to me to have me do my hard yards there years ago, and I want to thank them for being so kind to me and all the people in this business who’ve been kind. I’ve got to tell you, the sweetness and the kindness is what I appreciate the most today.

“In fact, the sweetness and the kindness are at the top of my list of human virtues. After that would be a big fat ass. Thank you so much for this award.”

By Susan Cornwell

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Congress returns to session on Monday facing a massive agenda and a tight time crunch, with President Joe Biden’s Democrats hoping to pass sweeping domestic programs, fund the government, approve an infrastructure bill and raise the debt ceiling in a matter of weeks.

They face several deadlines, including a scheduled Sept. 27 vote on a $1 trillion Senate-approved infrastructure bill and the Oct. 1 date when the federal government will run out of money to fund many of its operations if Congress doesn’t act. Later in October the country could breach its borrowing cap, risking default on U.S. payment obligations.

The Democrats, who control Congress by the narrowest of margins, also want to maneuver a $3.5 trillion spending package – including proposals for childcare, education, housing and green energy – past a Republican roadblock. Progressives boast the plan is the largest expansion of social policy in decades but senior Democrats on Sunday acknowledged the bill may need to be trimmed to pass.

“It may be $3.5 (trillion), it may be really close to that or maybe closer to something else,” Representative James Clyburn, the third-ranking House Democrat, told CNN on Sunday.

Democrats also want to pass bills on voting on abortion rights, which face long odds, given strong Republican opposition and a Senate filibuster rule requiring a 60 of 100 senators to agree to advance most legislation.

“Have they bitten off more than they can chew on? Well, yes, I think they have,” said William Hoagland, senior vice president at the Bipartisan Policy Center think-tank.

INFRASTRUCTURE IMPASSE?

House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi has promised to take up the bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure bill just a week after her chamber returns from summer break.

But progressives say they won’t vote for the infrastructure plan without first passing the $3.5 trillion social spending program, using a maneuver called “reconciliation,” which avoids the Senate requirement for a supermajority.

One possible compromise would be to vote on the infrastructure bill on Sept. 27 but for Pelosi not to forward it to Biden to sign until the larger package passes.

“She can hold on to that bill for a while. So there’s some flexibility in terms of how we mesh the two mandates,” Democratic House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth told “Fox News Sunday.”

Democrats are still squabbling over key planks of the reconciliation package, including proposals to lower the cost of prescription drugs and change tax laws, as well as the total price tag. The plan is to be financed by tax hikes on wealthy Americans and corporations.

Moderate Senate Democrats including Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema say $3.5 trillion is too much; Manchin suggests spending less than half that. Given their thin majorities, Democrats can spare just three House defectors and none in the Senate.

No Republicans intend to vote for the plan, and may ask the parliamentarian https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-senate-referee-spotlight-democrats-pursue-major-spending-2021-09-09 to rule on whether parts conform to the reconciliation process to qualify to be exempted from the filibuster rule.

Democrats suffered a setback on Sunday when the parliamentarian ruled they cannot attach immigration reforms to the $3.5 trillion plan. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said they would pursue alternatives.

The legislation could be manipulated to allow moderate Democrats to declare victory while assuaging progressives, such as by shortening some programs’ duration, or beefing up tax collection to cover costs, said Norman Ornstein, senior fellow emeritus at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute think-tank.

“Can you do that before Sept. 27? I doubt it, but it’s possible,” said Ornstein.

DEBT CEILING

While the Sept. 27 deadline is self-imposed, two more rigid ones come next.

The first is Oct. 1, when funding for government operations runs out, which would force the stoppage of many federal functions as has happened three times in the past decade.

In addition, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned that sometime in October the Treasury will exhaust its cash reserves and borrowing capacity under the $28.4 trillion federal debt limit, and be unable to pay all of its bills or service its debt without congressional action to raise the limit.

A U.S. default would roil financial markets, lead to cuts in services and benefits and hit the nation’s credit rating. It could also plunge the economy back into recession.

Such a scenario would be disastrous politically for Democrats, but Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and other top Republicans have warned they will not vote to boost the national debt limit, despite having done so repeatedly when Republican Donald Trump was president.

McConnell called the Democratic spending inflationary.

“They’ve been printing and wasting money like there’s no tomorrow,” McConnell said on the Senate floor.

Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat, said on Thursday that he believes Republicans and Democrats will resolve their political differences and avoid what called a self-inflicted, “Washington-baked crisis” over U.S. creditworthiness that the pandemic-stricken U.S. economy could ill afford.

“That doesn’t mean we may not get up to the precipice on that,” Warner told reporters. “I’ve just got to believe that this will get resolved.”

(Reporting by Susan Cornwell; Additional reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Scott Malone and Sonya Hepinstall)

Billy Porter’s “wings” were clipped before the Emmy Awards on Sunday (19.09.21).

The ‘Pose’ actor – who lost out to ‘The Crown’s Josh O’Connor for the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series prize – walked the red carpet at LA Live in an all-black outfit featuring long sleeves, gloves, trousers and dramatic ruffled wings on his arms, but admitted he’d originally planned for the outfit to look very different.

Speaking on ‘Live From E!’, he said: “Interestingly enough, this was supposed to go all the way to the floor, this little piece, and it didn’t. I started just playing with shapes and stuff in the mirror and it was like, ‘Well, they feels like wings.’ “

But Billy – who teamed his outfit with Lorraine Schwarz jewellery, including a huge diamond and emerald necklace, two diamond bracelets and multiple rings and ear cuffs – felt the outfit was appropriate for his role in new movie musical ‘Cinderella’.

He quipped: “You know I am the fairy godmother!”

The 51-year-old star previously admitted he wants to send a “clear” message with his red carpet wear.

He said: “You know, I am now working with Ty Hunter who is my new stylist, and we really, through quarantine, have been able to just get a handle on and get in the driver’s seat of the train that took off.

“It just took off so quick that like, you know, I just wanted to make sure that what I’m saying as I walk onto these red carpets, into the events – as a walking piece of political art, that’s what I’m trying to be every time – that we’re clear.”

The 51-year-old actor has gone viral with his bold ensembles at the Oscars, the Met Gala, and Tonys.

And Billy previously said he puts outfits together by defining the event and creating a deeper meaning with his style.

He explained: “We decide by first trying to define what the moment is. What the event is about and then we go from there. I’m a very story-oriented person coming from being an actor, so I always try to have a narrative for myself so that there is always a reason and there’s always a point. I want to be a walking piece of art – political art – whenever I can, any time I show up. I let other people say that [I’m a fashion icon]. You know, show business is hard because you borderline on confidence and arrogance, so I’m trying to be on the confidence side. I’m going to let other people call me a fashion icon at least for the next couple of years and then I’ll do it myself. But that’s what people are saying.”

Jennifer Coolidge “doesn’t know” what ‘Legally Blonde 3’ will be about.

The 60-year-old actress – who portrays Paulette Bonafonte Parcelle in the franchise – was hoping to run into Mindy Kaling at the Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday (19.09.21) because the ‘Mindy Project’ star is co-writing the upcoming film and she thought she might share some hints.

Jennifer told E! News: “I’m in a corner, I’ve never run into her.

“I’m going to ask [Mindy] what’s happening with the ‘Legally Blonde’ script.”

But the ‘White Lotus’ star has some ideas for the direction she’d like the movie to take.

She said: “I hope Reese [Witherspoon] and I are running really fast for most of it, we’re running from something really fast.

“I don’t know what it’ll be this time around, I just hope it’s some really fast-moving, caper-type [thing], that we get into trouble.”

Mindy previously admitted she was keen to get started on the film this year and hoped audiences liked how she and co-writer Dan Goor had portrayed Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) now she’s much older.

She said in January: “I can’t wait to see what people will think of the way we wrote Elle Woods. We wrote Elle Woods at 40, so how Elle is at 40 versus how she was at 21 has been really fun to imagine.

“I don’t know when we’ll be able to shoot movies again but it would be great to, if Reese likes the script, shooting it this year would be awesome.”

And she promised the film will reference iconic moments from previous installments, which were released in 2001 and 2003.

She confirmed: “Bend and Snap is forever. We definitely have a lot of fan favorites from the original movie.”

Anderson Cooper misses his mom’s “ludicrous relationship advice”.

The 54-year-old broadcaster lost his mom Gloria in June 2019, when she died of stomach cancer aged 95, and he admits that they enjoyed a “really unique relationship”.

Anderson – who came out as gay in 2012 – tole People: “I miss the random phone calls with a crazy idea, or her asking me ludicrous relationship advice.

“I’m certainly not anyone to give relationship advice, but I would give my mom feedback when she would go on dates, what I thought about the guys. Some of them I really didn’t think much of at all! We had a really unique relationship.”

Anderson admits his mom could be “frustrating and stressful” at times.

However, he still misses her presence immensely.

He said: “My mom was extraordinarily unique, and I miss that uniqueness in my life.

“It was sometimes very frustrating and stressful, because she never had a plan for things.

“She was incredibly creative, so things were always changing. I was always having to adapt to her new ideas and encourage some of those, and try to discourage her from things that didn’t make any sense.”

Anderson announced the birth of his son Wyatt in April last year.

The broadcaster had a baby with a surrogate mother and subsequently revealed that Wyatt was named after his dad – who died during open-heart surgery when the news anchor was just 10 years old – and his middle name, Morgan, stemmed from his mother’s side of the family.

He said on social media at the time: “He is named after my father, who died when I was ten. I hope I can be as good a dad as he was.

“My son’s middle name is Morgan. It’s a family name on my mom’s side.

“I know my mom and dad liked the name morgan because I recently found a list they made 52 years ago when they were trying to think of names for me. Wyatt Morgan Cooper. My son. (sic)”