Irina Shayk Opens up About Co-Parenting With Ex Bradley Cooper

Irina Shayk and Bradley Cooper are in it together when it comes to co-parenting 3-year-old daughter Lea, even after they announced in 2019 they were going their separate ways after four years together. The model, 35, spoke to Elle for March’s digital cover, telling the magazine that she and the actor, 46, have both kept their daughter as their number one priority throughout their own relationship changes.

“I never understood the term co-parenting. When I’m with my daughter, I’m 100 percent a mother, and when she’s with her dad, he’s 100 percent her dad,” she said in the cover story. “Co-parenting is parenting.” Shayk went on to call her ex “the most amazing dad,” but did decided to keep the remaining details about their relationship and the end of their romance private.

“My past relationship, it’s something that belongs to me, and it’s private,” she explained. “It’s just a piece of my inner self that I don’t want to give away.” While stories are regularly released speculating about the state of their relationship, Shayk said she keeps to herself and tries to ignore the outside chatter. “I don’t read what is out there. Honestly, I’m too busy raising a child,” the model said. “If they want to write articles [about me], they’re doing their job. I’m concentrating on my life and my friends. The rest is just noise.”

Shayk has been spending her quarantine like many other people, organizing her house and spending time with family, she told the magazine, speculating of her desire to declutter, “I think because we cannot control things that are going on in the world, I’m trying to control what’s going on in my house!” She added of her day-to-day life, “I’m not a fashion person. I’m a regular girl who is home watching Netflix.”

The supermodel told Elle her memories of growing up the daughter of a coal miner and kindergarten teacher in the small Russian town of Yemanzhelinsk included not having food, which prompted her to act when the coronavirus pandemic first began, and food insecurity in the U.S. increased. Shayk began working regular shifts at a Manhattan food bank, recalling seeing at least 1,000 people in line at once. She would eventually bring fellow model Joan Smalls along, explaining that “they put us in the fashion section to give clothing away,” appropriately enough. “We made a great day out of it,” she added.