CNN anchor and correspondent did not hide her excitement Wednesday over her interview with , telling her colleagues that she “almost cried” because “it was so wonderful” and he was like “a real frog with really great advice.”

The occasion for the interview with perhaps the world’s most famous frog was Kermit’s upcoming speech for the University of Maryland, College Park’s commencement ceremony on Thursday. UMD has been promoting the speech as a “Kermencement,” and the popular muppet has been giving press interviews.

Muppets creator was a UMD alumnus, meeting his future wife in a puppetry class he took as a freshman. Henson first came up with the idea for Kermit while he was a student, cutting up one of his mother’s old coats and gluing on ping-pong balls for eyes. The two are immortalized in a statue on the UMD campus.

Anchor introduced the pre-taped interview with Sidner and Kermit at the end of CNN News Central’s 9 am ET hour Wednesday, saying that this would be “a commencement speaker to remember this year.”

“Sara Sidner had the chance to sit down with everyone’s favorite frog to learn a little bit more about this,” said Bolduan. “How did that conversation go, Sara?”

“Honestly, I almost cried,” said Sidner. “It was so wonderful that — I really think of Kermit the Frog as a real frog with really good advice.”

In the interview, Sidner asked Kermit about what advice he would be giving the graduates and “what does it really mean to be green, metaphorically?”

Kermit replied that he loved the “Bein’ Green” song, written by , calling it a “wonderful” song that “means so many things and has done so for many people over the years.”

“I think the message of the song is that we’re all unique and special, you know, and our differences — that’s what can make us all beautiful,” he explained, because “your differences are what makes you you.”

“That’s a really good point,” Sidner solemnly replied.

The two also discussed Kermit’s “favorite life lesson” (from a lyric in The Muppet Movie about believing in yourself and writing your own ending to the movie of your life) and if he was “a muppet or a puppet” (a muppet, because he’d been one for 70 years and hoped to be one for 70 more, even though he had “really no idea” what the difference was).

“We love you, Kermit,” said Sidner to wrap the interview. “We really do.”

“Thanks, Sara,” replied the amphibian muppet.

“I’m verklempt,” Sidner told Bolduan after the interview had aired. “It was so much fun talking to Kermit the Frog, who really does have some incredible advice. I almost wanted to ask him if he’d been talking to Yoda a little bit. But it was a wonderful, wonderful time spent with him and the students.”

Sidner commented that past UMD commencement speakers had included vice presidents, mayors, and governors, but more people were asking her about Kermit than any other commencement speaker ever.

Bolduan said she was wondering if there was now a “rivalry brewing” between Kermit, a frog, and the Maryland mascot, a terrapin, a type of turtle. “The scandal!” she quipped.

“You know, that could be a scandal — but you know what I did learn?” said Sidner, and then dished on how Kermit had told her that he and had broken up and “that is done and dusted and over.”

“And he hugged me,” Sidner continued, “and I kind of said, like, oh, don’t hug me too long. I don’t want any issues with, you know, the diva. And he’s like, she’ll be fine, she’ll be fine. It’s fine. So yeah, that’s the tea I got, from Kermit.”

“You buried the lede, Sara,” said Bolduan with a laugh. “I mean, what?”

Watch the clip above via CNN.