Bradley Cooper and Gigi Hadid date amid an A-list network of past lovers

There are many ways to think about the news that Bradley Cooper and Gigi Hadid are reportedly getting “serious” in a relationship that suddenly blossomed about a month ago.

For one thing, it shows that the 48-year-old Academy Award winner has a thing for supermodels. It also shows that the “Maestro” actor-director may see himself as a great artist, but his romantic choices are a bit cliche, in that he’s like a lot of powerful male stars who date significantly younger women. Hadid is 28.

But it’s also intriguing to think about the Cooper-Hadid coupling in the context of all the famous people each has previously dated  — and all the famous people their ex-partners have in turn dated or been married to. There are some surprising six-degrees-of-separation connections in this exclusive network of A-list actors, supermodels, musicians and athletes, who have reportedly been in and out of attraction or love, who have known one another intimately and maybe exchanged precious secrets, not to mention bodily fluids. The circle includes Irina Shayk, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen.

Consider Cooper’s own personal life. Before Hadid, the one-time People’s Sexiest Man Alive was romantically linked to Jennifer Esposito, Renee Zellweger, Zoe Saldaña, Suki Waterhouse and Jennifer Lopez, the future Mrs. Ben Affleck, People reported. He also had a public flirtation with his “A Star is Born” co-star Lady Gaga.

Most notably, Cooper was in a long-time relationship with Irina Shayk, the Russian supermodel who also is the mother of his 6-year-old daughter. Cooper and Shayk dated for four years before breaking up in 2019. They are public about maintaining a friendly co-parenting relationship and occasionally spark rumors that they are getting back together.

During the summer of 2022, multiple reports said that Cooper dated loyal Hillary Clinton aide Huma Amedin, after being introduced by Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. Abedin’s prior love life consisted of being married to disgraced politician Anthony Weiner — aka Carlos Danger — who served 21 months in prison after pleading guilty in 2017 to sending illicit messages to a 15-year-old girl.

Back to Shayk. After breaking up with Cooper, she reportedly engaged in a brief fling with Kanye West in the spring and early summer of 2021, following the end of his marriage to Kim Kardashian. Over this past summer, Shayk reportedly enjoyed flirty, romantic “sleepovers” with retired NFL quarterback Tom Brady, who was coming off his 2022 divorce from Gisele Bundchen. As is well known, Bundchen is a supermodel like Shayk and Hadid, but probably more successful and rich.

Going down the rabbit hole a bit, Bundchen famously dated Leonardo DiCaprio from around 2000 to 2005, when she was becoming newly famous in her late teens and early 20s. Their romance constituted one of DiCaprio’s longest known relationships, and the couple were included on People’s magazine’s Most Beautiful Couples list for 2004.

Closing this Cooper-Hadid circle, Hadid reportedly dated DiCaprio on and off between the fall of 2022 and September of this year, Elle reported.

DiCaprio and Hadid had known each other a long time but the potential for romance didn’t spark until after Hadid broke up with singer Zayn Malik in October 2021, after they dated for five years and became parents to their daughter, now 3.

DiCaprio had also split from his longtime girlfriend Camila Morrone, just before he and Hadid were seen together during New York Fashion Week in September 2022. A source told People: “They sort of run in the same high-profile circles and would see each other at events, clubs, restaurants and gatherings.”

Over the next year, reports continued to say that Hadid and DiCaprio were dating, but that the relationship was “casual” and “fun,” nothing “serious.”

But to emphasize the network aspect of all these famous people knowing one another and becoming romantically entangled, the irrepressible Irina Shayk also popped up in the Hadid-DiCaprio timeline during the first weekend of the Coachella music festival in April, Elle reported.

DiCaprio was snapped hanging out with Shayk, while he was supposed to be involved with Hadid. But TMZ and E! shut down speculation that DiCaprio was moving in on the woman who had dated Cooper and who would soon capture Brady’s attention. A source told E! that DiCaprio and Shayk “were amongst a large group of people at a festival, all hanging out. They are just friends.”

It turns out that another famous friend — named Taylor Swift — helped facilitate Hadid’s romance with Cooper, Us Weekly reported. After Hadid and Cooper gained noticed for launching a “whirlwind” romance in early October, they escaped to Swift’s Rhode Island beach house for a private weekend.

“Taylor and Gigi have been close friends for years,” a source told Us in October, saying that Swift was more than happy to provide “a low-key place” where Cooper and Hadid could meet up.

Compared to Hadid’s past lovers, presumably including Malik and DiCaprio, the supermodel appreciates that Cooper is different “from other men she’s dated,” the insider also told Us, sharing, “He’s really mature and treats her with nothing but respect.”