Bradley Cooper admitted he struggled to feel connected to his and Irina Shayk’s daughter, Lea, when she was born.
The “Maestro” star appeared on Dax Shepard’s “Armchair Expert” podcast Monday and discussed his growth as a father since welcoming the 6-year-old in March 2017.
Cooper, 49, explained the first few months of Lea’s life he didn’t understand when fellow parents would say, “I would die in a second for my kid.”
“The first eight months — I don’t even know if I really love the kid,” he recalled feeling. “It’s dope. It’s cool. I’m watching this thing morph.”
“That’s my experience,” the actor continued. “Fascinated by it. Loved taking care of it. But would I die if someone came in with a gun?”
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He admitted after only a couple months into her life, he wasn’t sure.
“And then all of a sudden, it’s like no question,” he added.
Cooper confessed shortly after explaining he’s since strived to be a better person in order “to do the least amount of damage that [he] could do to [his] daughter.”
“I’m not sure I’d be alive if I wasn’t a dad,” he said. “I just needed someone to say, like, ‘We’re gonna drop this massive anchor.”
“I’m like, ‘Why? We’re speeding! I just got an upgrade on the boat, and I know where the wind’s coming in.’ They’re like, ‘No, no, no, there’s a tsunami coming in, and you need an anchor and we’re gonna drop it.’
“Because this is gonna dictate everything you do from now on. Your DNA is going to tell you that there’s something more important than you.”
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Cooper and Shayk, 38, who’ve dated off-and-on since 2015, maintain an amicable co-parenting relationship for their daughter.
Despite being separated, they’ve spent several holidays together and were most recently seen trick-or-treating as a family in New York City last October.
However, the “A Star is Born” actor has since moved on with his current flame Gigi Hadid, 28.
The duo first sparked relationship rumors in October 2023 and have been going strong ever since.
But Shayk isn’t too happy about their budding romance despite dating retired NFL star Tom Brady, 46.
An insider previously told Page Six the model hopes to eventually settle down with Cooper to make the most of the “years [that] have been put into the relationship.”