What made Bradley Cooper so ‘dark and difficult’ to Suki Waterhouse?
Nearly a decade after Suki Waterhouse dated Bradley Cooper, the British model, actor and singer has made some intriguing comments about what is was like to date the “Maestro” star.
In an interview with British Vogue, the singer talked about “the story behind her relationship” with the Hollywood superstar, describing that time as being “dark and difficult.”
Waterhouse and Cooper dated from 2013 to 2015, starting when she was 21 and he was 38. She’s now in a relationship with “The Batman” star Robert Pattinson, and they welcomed a baby daughter in March.
British Vogue said Waterhouse’s relationship with Cooper “propelled her to the murky heights of tabloid fame.” When they began dating, Waterhouse was mainly known as a model who hung out with other “It girl” London models like Georgia May Jagger and Cara Delevingne.
Cooper’s star, meanwhile, was on the rise after he starred in “The Hangover” and nabbed his first Oscar nomination by acting opposite Jennifer Lawrence in “Silver Linings Playbook.”
Waterhouse and Cooper dated for two years. During that time, they were serious enough that he brought her as his date to a 2014 White House state dinner, hosted by Barack and Michelle Obama at the White House, in honor of then-French President Francois Hollande.
But then Waterhouse and Cooper split.
“When something very public happens to you and the story behind it is dark and difficult, and you’re actually not doing well, and you can’t explain yourself to the world, that’s very isolating,” Waterhouse said somewhat mysteriously to British Vogue.
Waterhouse did not elaborate on what was so “dark and difficult” about her time with Cooper, but she referred to her “sadistic” 20s when it came to relationships.
“The love I experienced (then) was only ever a fetishization, and I think when you only get loved in that way, you only get punished,” Waterhouse said.
British Vogue said that Waterhouse’s first work as a singer-songwriter came after her split from Cooper and dealt with “the rawest of heartbreak.” Her 2016 song, “Brutally,” is “an absolute gut-punch of a break-up song,” the magazine reported. The lyrics include, “I’ll get used to it eventually/Over and over again, brutally/It’s just the way it’s meant to be/Now your love’s no good for me.”
“It probably has taken a decade to work myself out and actually be able to have this expansion in my life,” Waterhouse told British Vogue. If she had been told that she’d now have a new relationship, a baby and a thriving modeling and acting career, “I wouldn’t have believed you,” she said.
For a while, Waterhouse gained a reputation as a model who dates older men. After Cooper, she next became involved with actor-director Diego Luna, 13 years her senior, before she began dating Pattinson, who is six years older.
Still, Waterhouse flourished professionally. In addition to releasing her single “Brutally,” Waterhouse began to land an increasing number of acting roles, highlighted by her playing keyboardist Karen Sirko in the Amazon Prime series, “Daisy Jones & the Six.”
Cooper, meanwhile, continued his practice of dating younger models, while garnering more Hollywood power and Oscar nominations for acting and directing the 2018 film “A Star is Born” and 2023’s “Maestro.” Cooper became a father to a now 7-year-old daughter with Russian model Irina Shayk in 2017, and is now dating model, influencer and socialite Gigi Hadid.