Bradley Cooper Says Having Daughter Lea Saved Him: 'Not Sure I'd Be Alive If I Wasn't a Dad'

Nothing is more important to Bradley Cooper than being a dad.

While appearing on Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast this week, the Maestro actor, 49, shared that his relationship with his daughter Lea, 6, is one of the most important things in the world to him. Cooper shares his daughter with his model ex Irina Shayk.

"Being a parent? Honestly, I'm not sure I'd be alive if I wasn't a dad. I don't know," Cooper tells the Parenthood actor.

"What would've happened?" Shepard asks.

"I don't know. I don't know man, I'm not sure."

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Earlier in the podcast, Shepard asks Cooper if he's thought about whether his daughter will grow up to marry someone like him or not, saying that girls often grow up to marry men like their dads and boys often grow up to marry women like their moms.

"I think about that a lot, in terms of how does my relationship with my daughter impact her growth and the journey that she's going to be on? And specifically romantically in life, wherever intimacy finds her," Cooper says.

"I've clocked that she's going to be 7 in March. You know my relationship with my dad, [I didn't ] spend a lot of time with him. I think I've already logged more hours with my daughter than I did with my dad his entire life. So that alone is bonkers."

The actor also shares that he loves being able to have full conversations with his daughter.

"All the time. Every conversation," Cooper says in response to Shepard's question about having profound talks with his daughter. "Her ability to articulate her feelings at 6 years old."

"Her mother and I bawled over this human being that we're raising that is able to articulate in her voice."