Bradley Cooper is opening up about how his 6-year-old daughter, Lea, changed his life.
“Honestly, I’m not sure I’d be alive if I wasn’t a dad,” the “Maestro” actor and director said on Monday’s episode of “Armchair Expert” podcast. “I don’t know.”
“I just needed someone to say, ‘We’re gonna drop this massive anchor,’” Cooper said, giving an example of what becoming a dad felt like to him. “And I’m like, ‘Why? We’re speeding. I just got an upgrade on the boat, and I know where the wind is coming in.’ And they’re like, ‘No no no, there’s a tsunami coming, and you need an anchor, and we’re gonna drop it. [Because] this is going to dictate everything you do from now on.’”
“Your DNA is going to tell you that there’s something more important than you,” Cooper added.
Cooper also got candid about another vulnerable parenting topic, as the “A Star Is Born” entertainer said it took time to warm up to his daughter after her birth.
“Everyone is always like, ‘I would die in a second for my kid,’” Cooper said.
“I’m always like, ‘If I’m being honest, ehhh, I don’t know.’ The first 8 months I’m like, ‘I don’t even know if I really love the kid. It’s dope, it’s cool, I’m watching it morph,’” he said of his experience, later adding that “all of a sudden, it’s like no question.”
Cooper shares Lea with his ex-girlfriend, model Irina Shayk.
He’s spoken about fatherhood before, telling Bear Grylls last year about how he’s parenting Lea.
“You learn from your predecessor’s mistakes, and I’ll make tons that hopefully Lea will learn from, and then being rigorous with myself to grow,” he said. “To help unburden her with any of my bullshit.”