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It’s no secret that Hollywood loves a power couple, and the famous duo on everyone’s lips in the 2010s was Suki Waterhouse and Bradley Cooper.
The pair’s relationship, which began in 2013 and lasted for three years, attracted controversy for the notable age gap, with Waterhouse just 21 years old at the time and Cooper aged 38. The fanfare only intensified when Cooper was spotted reading Lolita to Waterhouse while vacationing in Paris. Quite a choice of novel, Bradley!
Waterhouse has since found love again following her split from Cooper, after meeting Robert Pattinson at a game night in Hollywood in 2018. Waterhouse — who is a musician alongside her acting roles — began dating the Batman star that year, and by 2024 they were married with one child, who arrived in March. While the romance between Waterhouse and Pattinson (Water-Patt? Patt-House?) seems like the picture of bliss, the Daisy Jones & The Six star has revealed that the breakup with Cooper was anything but.
In a new interview as the cover star of British Vogue, Waterhouse was open about the turmoil she endured both in the relationship and during the breakup, but what exactly did she say?
Suki Waterhouse and Bradley Cooper’s breakup, explained
For context, Suki Waterhouse and Bradley Cooper met in 2013 at the Elle Style Awards in London. Sources have said the pair “hit it off immediately,” and Waterhouse told Wonderland in 2014 that they were dancing together at the afterparty before heading to a nightclub. At the time, Waterhouse said she and Cooper “make a ridiculously good duo.”
By 2015, the relationship was reportedly on the rocks, and while neither party has given an official reason for the split, sources claim they were simply at different stages in their lives. One of Waterhouse’s songs, titled “Brutally”, released in 2016, appears to reference the reason for the breakup.
“Seems to me, it’s over I’ll get used to it eventually,” Waterhouse sings on the track, “It’s just the way it’s meant to be / Now your love’s no good for me.” Other lyrics in the song seem to hint that Waterhouse and Cooper “were always on borrowed time.” While their three-year romance appeared to be happy, Waterhouse has spoken sporadically since their 2015 breakup about the toll it took on her.
In 2023, she opened up to The Times about a “colossal heartbreak” she endured in her 20s — aligning with the timeline of her and Cooper’s relationship — and said it left her feeling “depressed for a while.” While she never specified names, Waterhouse did mention “constantly read[ing]” about the new girlfriends of her ex-partner, saying that experience felt like “public humiliation.”
In the years since his split from Waterhouse, Cooper has been romantically linked to models Bella Hadid and Irina Shayk, the latter of whom he dated from 2015 to 2019 and shares a daughter, Lea, with. While her infrequent interviews have shed some light on the relationship, Waterhouse’s more recent Vogue profile digs a little deeper into the aftermath of the split.
Waterhouse said it took almost ten years to heal from the hurt of the breakup, adding that the story behind the split is “dark and difficult.” The actress went on to say that her inability to share her pain with the world was “isolating and disorientating.” Waterhouse described being in your 20s and in love as “sadistic”, adding that the love she felt during the relationship “was only ever a fetishisation.”
That kind of love left her feeling “punished,” Waterhouse said, but she has since healed and found the right romance. The actress said that turning 30 “afforded [her] a little bit more respect,” adding that she’s “pretty strong at this point.” As for her relationship with Pattinson, it seems to be a much lighter affair, with Waterhouse recalling their first time meeting and how she “light[s] up when I’m around him.”
The duo met at a celebrity game night with attendees like Al Pacino, Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz, and while it’d be six or seven months before they crossed paths again, the initial meet “had percolated” something between them. Waterhouse revealed that she and Pattinson’s pregnancy was “really planned,” and described the Twilight star as a “very calm” father.