Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga || Stardust Melodies

Hello Beautiful Stranger

I swear to God, when I come home
I'm gonna hold you so close
I swear to God, when I come home
I'll never let go

Even at this early hour, the New York streets hummed with life. Although the heavy city heat pounding down against the concrete could be unbearable at times, these sunny summer days were some of my favorites. The city was more alive than ever, but all I wanted to do was get home.

Three weeks away from my heart had left my chest feeling barren.

My arms were empty.

No melodious laughter to fill my soul, or hushed breaths cradled against my chest to calm my hectic seas. To be away from them quite literally tore me to pieces. The reality of my work could take me away from them for weeks at a time; a reality that never got easier.

Nothing in my life was more important than my family.

From the moment I had laid eyes on that incredible, incredible woman, my whole world changed.

She had come when I least expected it, life has a funny way of doing that.

She was a curveball, I thought at the time, but now looking back, it all makes sense that she was no such thing.

She was a divine intervention of sorts, a light so bright I could only help but follow its iridescent glow.

Her light, and her love had pulled me out of my personal darkness, at a time when I did not even realize I was lost.

Like a northern star, guiding me home.

Without fail, her love has always guided me home.

I would move the highest mountains, and part the deepest seas for my family. The undeniable desire I felt to protect and be with them, was only amplified while I was thousands of miles away.

I had been away for almost three weeks directing a period film about an American soldier in the trenches of World War II. I had fully committed myself to this piece over two years ago, and when we found out we were expecting our third baby, I begged them to push the filming dates back a few months so I could stay with her.

Warner Brothers had reluctantly complied, delaying filming to the latest possible date: six weeks after the birth of our youngest.

I was ready to abandon the project completely, but she had flatly refused such an "absurd" idea, as she had called it.

She promised her parents, and her sister would help, but I still worried so deeply about leaving them, and leaving her to tend to a newborn all alone.

Though I felt overwhelmed with selfishness, she was never one to let me give up on a dream, and she kept reminding me that ultimately, this was just another part of the legacy I was leaving my children.

So with a reluctant heart, I boarded a plane, and flew over 4,000 miles away to rural Poland, where I had spent the last three weeks.

With limited access to internet, and any sort of phone connection, I had been virtually off the map throughout my trip.

As I immersed myself in the film, I could not help but think of whatever was going on back at home.

When I would close my eyes at night, I could almost hear the chirping of their voices echoing through our town house, and if my body relaxed enough, I could practically feel the limp weight of our newborn girl sleeping in my arms. And most of all, when I slept well, I could feel her in my dreams, the sweet melodies of Nat King Cole singing in my subconscious.