Irina Shayk Really, Really Wants You to Think She’s “Real”

Irina Shayk, who has been known to keep talk about her private life to a minimum, has revealed her quest for authenticity. She really, really wants you to know how “real” she is in all aspects of her life—from her relationship to Bradley Cooper to motherhood to her looks.

In a digital cover interview with Harper’s Bazaar, Shayk says, “I think the real moments is what shows who the person is. And my friends, they really care about the real stuff—they care about you just being real.”

The supermodel dances around the subject of her reportedly defunct relationship with Cooper, which is said to have ended after months of hearsay that Cooper and his A Star Is Born costar, Lady Gaga, had had an affair (a rumor that coincided with their press tour for the film and seemingly reached its apex during their Oscars performance of “Shallow”). While in her cover interview Shayk says she doesn’t want to spend too much time in the “cyber cloud” that is social media, after her breakup, she pressed on by posting some eye-catching Instagram photos of herself on vacation and returning to the runway next to Bella Hadid. Although neither she nor Cooper have officially confirmed their breakup, they have not been seen in public together in months.

And while Cooper and Shayk never married, the supermodel still has a firm belief in the institution of marriage itself. “Everyone looks at it differently. Do I believe in marriage? Yes, of course. I’m not the kind of person who is against it,” she says in the interview. However, the statement was made before the news dropped of the separation. When Bazaar asks Shayk at a later date to address the new “developments” regarding the rumored split from Cooper, with whom she shares a two-year-old daughter, her representatives shut it down.

Elsewhere, Shayk also reveals that when it comes to raising her daughter, Lea, she believes “there is no real challenge” to being a working mother. “I really believe if you love something, you can prioritize your time. [Motherhood] is just an addition to your life,” she continues, before noting that she has no assistant or stylist. “People think I have a team of like 20 people, but it’s going to make me more nervous to have somebody else to help me. I think I like to be not helped,” Shayk says.

When it comes to the idea of perfection, Shayk does admit that she believes her beauty comes from her genes, although she acknowledges a weakness for tanning (“I freaking love tanning”). She believes in “facials with the machines” instead of “fancy cream facials” or “cucumbers and strawberries on the face,” and would rather go for a regimen that’s a little less ornate. However, she believes in having a choice when it comes to beauty routines. “If somebody wants to inject their lips because they feel bad, God bless them. I don’t judge anyone,” she says. “But I always promote natural beauty because I think we live in this perfect world where everyone wants to be perfect. But I’m not perfect. Sometimes I have a double chin. Perfection doesn’t exist.”

“I’m going to have wrinkles and I have wrinkles,” Shayk admits. “You just have to accept the idea of aging and of bodies at every stage, and just celebrate it. In life, we have to let it go and understand it’s a human process not to be perfect.”

But perhaps the most authentic thing about Shayk that emerges from the interview is her unabashed love for tomatoes (and other garden vegetables). The supermodel’s own gardening knowledge comes from growing up in harsh Russian winters, and she says that she would rather receive a tomato plant than a bouquet of flowers. You can’t get much realer than that.

Related: Irina Shayk Makes Her Return to the Runway Post-Breakup