The TWO surprising reasons Gigi Hadid and Bradley Cooper have finally decided to go public with their relationship
FOR more than a year Gigi Hadid has retreated from the limelight, determined to keep her relationship with A-lister Bradley Cooper a secret.
Pal Taylor Swift even helped Gigi and Bradley stay under the radar by lending them her Rhode Island mansion for a romantic break away from prying eyes.
But now the pair are proudly parading their love in public with Gigi gushing about her ‘man’ Bradley on the red carpet of the Met Ball on Monday.
Days earlier the model had taken to Instagram to mark her 30th birthday posting a picture of her kissing Limitless actor Bradley behind a three-tiered birthday cake writing how she felt lucky to be his partner.
But insiders say there are two very special reasons the pair finally feel comfortable to hard launch their relationship and even shout it from the rooftops: their daughters.
Gigi shares four-year-old Khai with Zayn, and despite their shocking breakup, she says the couple now successfully co-parent with “love, and a feeling of camaraderie”.
Meanwhile, Bradley, 50, has an eight-year-old daughter, Lea De Seine, from his previous relationship with Gigi’s friend Irina Shayk - who was apparently instrumental in matchmaking the pair, and has such a great relationship with Bradley they still holiday together.
At the start of the year, People magazine reported that Gigi and Bradley’s blended family had become such a success, that the two girls “spend time together”.
It marked a turning point for the pair, who have since become confident to giddily describe themselves as “very romantic and happy” - even revealing how their first date took place after they met in a friend’s garden, at a children’s party.
A source said: “Gigi and Bradley wanted to make sure their entire families were happy with their relationship before they made anything public between them, as an absolute priority.
“They have taken things slowly and kept their relationship under wraps as much as possible during their early days, but now they feel they can celebrate their love for one another publicly, they feel like they can shout it from the rooftops.”
But Gigi, who grew up in the spotlight, appearing alongside mum Yolanda in the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills series, had previously taken a different approach.
After Khai was born, she wrote an open letter to paparazzi requesting her daughter’s face be blurred when pictured.
She explained her desire that her daughter “can choose how to share herself with the world when she comes of age, and that she can live as normal of a childhood as possible, without worrying about a public image that she has not chosen”.
It was around the time she and Zayn relocated to their farm in Pennsylvania, where they spent lockdown together, retreating from the glare of the spotlight.
Gigi explains: “It just kind of got to a point in my career where there started to be cameras outside every day in New York. And there was a darkness to that for me.”
She admits she found herself becoming reclusive in her New York apartment, due to the constant interest.
“It got to a place where I would have three days off, and I would stay inside for three days. And that’s very intense,” she recalls.
But while their rural life together seemed idyllic, tensions between the pair rose.
Sources at the time described their relationship as “destructive”, and in 2021, after two years of dating, they separated.
The pair endured a toxic break-up that played out in public between her ex and her mum, who accused him of assault.
So it was no surprise she went to great lengths to keep her relationship with Bradley Cooper out of the limelight.
During an argument, Yolanda accused former One Direction star Zayn of “shoving” her into a dresser, though he “adamantly” denied striking her.
In October 2021, he entered a no contest plea to four charges of harassment against Gigi’s mother Yolanda.
What we are interested in is raising our daughter together, with so much respect for each other, and not just as co-parents, but what we’ve been through together
Gigi Hadid
During the confrontation, he was accused of calling Yolanda a “f*****g Dutch s**t”, as well as allegedly telling Gigi, who was listening from Paris on a phone call, to “strap on some f*****g balls and defend your partner against your f*****g mother in my house”.
Zayn was given a sentence of 360 days of probation, and required to complete anger management and domestic violence education.
'Peaceful family environment'
He later acknowledged he was not “the best version of the partner” he wanted to be for Gigi.
But the exes have clearly worked hard at maintaining the “peaceful family environment” that Zayn has always said he was striving for.
Last year, it was reported he was “completely supportive” of Gigi’s new relationship with Bradley.
“What we are interested in is raising our daughter together, with so much respect for each other, and not just as co-parents, but what we’ve been through together,” Gigi has explained.
“Zayn and I do our custody schedules months in advance.
"That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t change here and there, but we help each other out and have each other’s backs.”
Russian supermodel Irina says she and Bradley team up to give Lea a “normal background” like both of theirs, and have even holidayed together to the Bahamas and Venice as a family - their breaks are so civil, they have been dubbed “divorcations”.
Bradley, who was raised by two stockbroker parents in Pennsylvania, and Irina decided to raise Lea without the help of a nanny, and “take her everywhere” together, and Irina has praised Bradley by saying: “He’s the best father Lea and I could dream of.”
In turn, Bradley - who has previously dated Renee Zellweger, Jennifer Lopez, Zoe Saldana and Suki Waterhouse and was briefly married to Jennifer Esposito in 2006 - has described feeling “anchored” by his daughter.
Gigi, who has also dated Leonardo DiCaprio, admits that fame adds a complicated extra dimension to a new relationship leading to their desire to keep their relationship low-key when they started seeing each other in 2023.
I just feel really lucky. Yeah, lucky’s the word
Gigi Hadid
"You want to give yourself a normal experience of dating," she says, despite having a combined net worth of more than £100million.
Their families, including Gigi’s supermodel sister Bella Hadid, have already given their seals of approval, with Gigi’s family telling ‘People’ magazine they have “never seen her so happy”.
“Yolanda and Bella love Bradley but the main thing they care about is that he treats Gigi with love and respect,” a source told the publication.
“Bradley is different from any of Gigi’s past relationships and they’ve never seen her this happy with a partner before.”
Bradley is extremely close to his mum Gloria - he invited her to move in with him after his father’s death - and Gigi has already holidayed with the family, and his daughter Lea, on a luxury yacht in Sardinia last year.
Bradley has also been given the green light from Gigi’s dad Mohamed Hadid, who invited the pair out for a double date with his girlfriend, Keni Silva.
And Gigi’s wider family - her girl squad - are also fans of Bradley. So much so, he was even invited to gatecrash one of their girls’ nights out, with an A List line-up including Taylor Swift, singer Selena Gomez, model Cara Delevingne and Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner.
They have since joined Taylor and boyfriend Travis Kelce for a weekend away at Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.
Evidently, despite a 20 year age gap, the timing has been perfect for the pair, who met while in exactly the same headspace, and a shared priority of their daughters.
Gigi has explained: “I think just getting to the point where knowing what you want and deserve in a relationship is essential.
"And then to find someone that is in a place in their life where they know what they want and deserve…and you both do work separately to come together and be the best partner that you can be.
“I just feel really lucky. Yeah, lucky’s the word.”
