Bradley Cooper's Ex Hints He's A Walking Red Flag With Scathing Take On Their Breakup

Bradley Cooper's ex-girlfriend has opened up about past heartbreak, and her comments aren't exactly flattering for the "Maestro" star. Musician, model, and "Daisy Jones & The Six" actor Suki Waterhouse dated Cooper for two years before calling it quits in 2015. When they began their controversial relationship, Waterhouse was only 21, and Cooper was 38. In a recent interview with British Vogue, now-32-year-old Waterhouse recalled dating in her 20s and, while she didn't call out Cooper by name, her harsh words put everyone she dated then in a bad light — including Cooper.

"Your 20s are pretty sadistic," she said. "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." A decade after her relationship with Cooper was tabloid fodder, Waterhouse notes that she's learned a lot from her past. "I really will say that I'm pretty strong at this point, but 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 and disorientating," she explained, seemingly referencing their breakup.

Waterhouse has remained fairly tight-lipped about the split over the years, but this isn't the first time she hinted at the "colossal heartbreak" she experienced before entering her 30s. In a 2023 interview with The Times, Waterhouse explained that she was "kind of depressed for a while." She added, "It stuck around for a long time. I think it was the breakup and also just being in my 20s and in the f***ing trenches." 

Both Suki Waterhouse and Bradley Cooper have moved on in the near-decade since their breakup. Cooper started dating model Gigi Hadid in 2023. Like Waterhouse, Hadid is much younger than Cooper — the two have a 20-year age gap. Waterhouse is in a relationship with 38-year-old actor Robert Pattinson – the power couple has been linked since 2018 and reportedly got engaged in 2023. They welcomed a baby girl in March, and Waterhouse made it clear to British Vogue that she's much better off with Pattinson than she was with Cooper saying their "love ... is really pure."

While, per The Times, Waterhouse has called herself "utterly healed" from past breakups, she believes that major heartbreak is always a part of you. When it comes to her past pain, she says, "a lot of it just doesn't go away." She told British Vogue, "It probably has taken a decade to work myself out and actually be able to have this expansion in my life." 

The star said that getting respect in relationships is often easier in your 30s than in your 20s but noted that the difference "is kind of delightful and shocking at the same time." Still, she wouldn't change her past if she could and noted that she has faith in karma. In her words, "You wear your scars and if you can take them and build them into something and share them, then that's the ultimate."