‘I’m Not Sure I’d Be Alive’: Bradley Cooper Says Fatherhood Saved His Life

Bradley Cooper said fatherhood saved his life, and he’s not sure he’d “be alive” if he hadn’t become a dad to 6-year-old daughter Lea with ex-girlfriend model Irina Shayk.

During the 49-year-old actor’s recent appearance on the “Armchair Expert with Dax Shepherd” podcast, Cooper said becoming a father has led to incredible growth over the last few years because he wanted to change for Lea. 

“I just want the least amount of damage that I could do to my daughter, please let me work on myself,” the “Maestro” star said. “I can just feel the safety that she feels. It’s so tangible; it’s palpable. That is so fulfilling.” 

“I want her to have, as much as she can, a foundation that’s like 25 feet thick, cement, that she can walk on this earth with,” he added. “That’s the goal. Honestly, I’m not sure I’d be alive if I wasn’t a dad—I don’t know…I am not sure.”

“I just needed someone to say, ‘We’re gonna drop this massive anchor,’ and I’m like, ‘Why? We’re speeding. We just got an upgrade on the boat and I know where the wind is coming in,'” Cooper continued. “And they’re like, ‘No, there’s a tsunami coming and you need an anchor and we’re gonna drop it. This is going to dictate everything you do from now on. Your DNA is going to tell you there’s something more important than you.'”

Later, the “Silver Linings Playbook” star admitted that for the first eight months after Lea was born, he didn’t completely understand when parents would say they would die for their kid. He said he thought, “I don’t even know if I really love the kid, it’s dope. It’s cool’….And then all of a sudden it’s like no question.”

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Speaking on the “Smartless” podcast in 2022, Cooper talked about how “everything changed” in his life when he became a father.

“Every single thing is absolutely shaded by, or brought into glorious colors, by the fact that I get to be a father to a wonderful human being,” the actor said. “You have this wonderful thing or breakthrough with a script, or you have a wonderful moment on this set or in an editing room … you have like 40 of those moments every day with your kid, that are that level of joy. That’s not spinning it, that’s just the truth.”

Related: ‘I Was So Lost’: Bradley Cooper Reveals When He Realized He Had ‘A Problem With Drugs’ And The Actor Who Helped Him Turn Everything Around