Bradley Cooper Discusses Helping Brooke Shields After Her Seizure

Bradley Cooper, 48, has opened up about heroically aiding Brooke Shields, 58, after she suffered a grand mal seizure in September.

Shields first discussed the incident earlier this month in a Glamour profile about her harrowing ordeal. Just before she was set to perform her one-woman show at New York’s famed Café Carlyle, Shields lost consciousness and began “frothing at the mouth, [going] totally blue, trying to swallow my tongue. The next thing I remember, I’m being loaded into an ambulance,” Shields recounted, before adding: “And Bradley fucking Cooper is sitting next to me holding my hand.”

Speaking to Extra alongside his Maestro co-star Carey Mulligan at Sunday’s Gotham Awards, Cooper downplayed his act of kindness. “I was happy to be in the right place at the right time,” he demurred.

Cooper was attending Shields’ performance on the night of her seizure and was one of the first people to rush to her aid. The two starred together in the gory slasher movie Midnight Meat Train (2008) and have remained friends ever since.

While the story may sound funny now, Shields confirmed to Glamour that Cooper’s presence initially unsettled her. “I thought to myself, ‘This is what death must be like,’” she recalled. “You wake up and Bradley Cooper’s going, ‘I’m going to go to the hospital with you, Brooke,’ and he’s holding my hand. And I’m looking at my hand, I’m looking at Bradley Cooper’s hand in my hand, and I’m like, ‘This is odd and surreal.’”

Ultimately, doctors determined that Shields’ seizure was due to low sodium, a result of drinking too much water. “I flooded my system, and I drowned myself,” Shields said. “And if you don’t have enough sodium in your blood or urine or your body, you can have a seizure.”