Andy Cohen and his mom talk to “Parade”

Bravo TV star Andy Cohen has a new memoir out called Most Talkative: Stories From the Front Lines of Pop Culture.

He’s doing all kinds of interviews to promote it including one with the real housewife who started it all: his mom, Evelyn.

They grace the cover of this weekend’s special Mother’s Day issue of PARADE. The mother-son duo talk about everything from Andy’s love life to their candid text messages.

Andy, 43, says he is missing one thing from his life: “I would like a boyfriend. I’m a very happy person and it is the final, final piece of the puzzle.”

His mom, Evelyn, 75, worries that he’s too busy to meet Mr. Right. “Is life passing him by because he’s working so hard?” she asks. “Maybe I just haven’t met the right person,” Andy tells her.

Evelyn, silver-haired and diminutive, proves that big personalities can come in small packages. “She texts me a review of my show every night,” says Andy. “She’ll say, ‘Fantastic.’ ‘You seem drunk.’ ‘Funny one.’” Evelyn may be critical of individual episodes of her son’s show, but she’s his biggest supporter. “Andy was a magnetic personality from the time he was a little boy,” she says. “He brings this energy with him and makes people happy.”

Cohen grew up in Clayton, Mo., glued to All My Children (a passion his mother came to share), Battle of the Network Stars, and CHiPs (he had an early crush on Erik Estrada). During college, Cohen began telling good friends that he was gay. Not long after, he told his parents.

“I cried for six months,” Evelyn says, explaining that back then she knew almost no other gay people; she also worried about AIDS and thought that Andy would have career trouble. But she agreed when a neighbor told her, “Andy is Andy. He’s still the same today as he was yesterday.” So Evelyn, who had always been involved in community work, turned activist: She helped establish Doorways, an organization in St. Louis that provides housing for individuals affected by HIV/AIDS. “That really speaks volumes as to who she is,” says Andy. “I love her for it.”