Bradley Cooper Got Refreshingly Honest About His Struggle with Fatherhood

On the podcast 'Armchair Expert,' Cooper confessed he didn't fully connect with his daughter until she was about 8 months old.

Sharing some raw, emotional revelations, Bradley Cooper recently revealed he had trouble bonding with his now-6-year-old daughter for the first several months of her life. On Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast earlier in the week, Cooper, 49, was very transparent about having feelings that many parents can relate to, but rarely talk about.

In addition to admitting that he used to not understand it when other parents said they would die for their kids, he said, despite it being “dope” watching his daughter, Lea De Seine Shayk Cooper, “morph” as she got older, for “the first eight months — I don’t even know if I really love the kid.”

He went on, “That’s my experience. Fascinated by it. Loved taking care of it. But would I die if someone came in with a gun?”

The Maestro director said it required some time to adjust before he realized how much he adored her. “And then all of a sudden, it’s like, no question,” he explained. Cooper also noted that his goal was “to do the least amount of damage that [he] could do to [his] daughter,” and said he'll do whatever it takes to help Lea grow up in a healthy household.

He told Shepard that he's now smitten with both the act of being a dad and his daughter herself. “Her ability to articulate her feelings at 6 years old…her mother and I are bowled over at this human being we’re raising," he said. “How does my relationship with my daughter impact her growth and the journey she’s going to be on? I think I’ve already logged more hours with my daughter than [I did with] my dad in his entire life."

He also acknowledged he wasn't "sure I'd be alive if I wasn't a dad" because he felt rootless and unanchored before her birth. Cooper and Lea’s mom, model Irina Shayk, began dating in 2015 before calling it quits for years later, in 2019. The two never married and are now amicably co-parenting the little girl. Cooper has recently been romantically linked to model Gigi Hadid.

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