The couple welcomed their daughter, Lea De Seine in 2017
Bradley Cooper and Irina Shayk may not have made their relationship work – but they are thriving at co-parenting their daughter, Lea De Seine.
The former couple welcomed the seven-year-old in 2017, two years before they called time on their four-year romance.
While Bradley is often vocal about his love for their daughter, Irina prefers to keep details of their family dynamic as private as possible.
"Because my work requires me to be out there, I just decided my personal life will be quiet," Irina told Glamour UK in 2019. "That's why it's called personal, because it's something for you and your family, and I feel happy with it."
Fans got their first real look at Lea in December 2023 when she made her red carpet debut at the premiere of Bradley's film, .
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Lea – who has a cameo in the film playing a younger version of Maya Hawke's character Jamie Bernstein – looked adorable in a leopard print dress as she held her dad's hand while posing for photos.
Bradley and Irina's parenting style
Despite Bradley being a successful actor and director and Irina a world-class supermodel, they will always put their daughter's needs ahead of their busy schedules.
"We both take Lea everywhere with us. She's super easy," Irina told Elle in November.
Even when their schedules are demanding, she said they "always find a way" to make it work for them both.
"He's the best father Lea and I could dream of. It always works, but it always works because we make it work," she explained.
Both she and Bradley live in New York City and have refrained from hiring a nanny so Lea can experience a "normal" childhood like her parents did.
"Looking at my daughter now, she's growing up in a completely different environment," Irina told the outlet.
"She lives in the West Village. She went to all these countries in two months. But we want her to know the value of stuff. We want to show our daughter: 'You have to work hard to get something.'"
While they are successfully navigating raising a child despite no longer being together, Irina previously admitted that she "never understood" the term co-parenting.
"When I'm with my daughter, I'm 100 per cent a mother, and when she's with her dad, he's 100 per cent her dad. Co-parenting is parenting," she told Elle in 2021.
Becoming a father is something Bradley has always dreamed of, and he recently credited his daughter for keeping him alive. "Honestly I'm not sure I'd be alive if I wasn't a dad," he said on the Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard podcast in February.
"I don't know what would have happened. I am not sure."
The actor – who has been open about his addiction struggles and is 19 years sober – admitted that fatherhood made him want to become the best version of himself to avoid mentally damaging his daughter.
He explained: "I'm a father [seeking to do] the least amount of damage I can do to my daughter.
"To have a child not grow up in that way… 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. That's the goal."
In 2018, he opened up about fatherhood, telling : "Having a child and having a family of my own — which is a miracle and something I've always dreamt of — has opened me up even more to the day, and to be present. I just always want [Lea] to feel loved."
The year after, he told Oprah Winfrey that his daughter often reminds him of his late father, Charles. "Our daughter, she's incredible. And I see my father in her quite often," he said.
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