Former fiancee says Cooper was 'cruel'

A woman who was engaged to marry Bradley Cooper in the late 1990s said in an affidavit filed today that he emotionally abused her.

Jennifer Windsor Ball said that she began to fear for her physical safety before they split in December 1998.

"He constantly belittled me to other people," Ball said in the affidavit. "I had never before, and have never again, been in a relationship with someone who treated me so poorly."

Cooper later met and married Nancy Cooper in Alberta, Canada. Nancy Cooper, 34, was killed in July, her body discovered near the couple's Cary home two days after Bradley Cooper said she went out for a jog and didn't return.

No one has been arrested for Nancy Cooper's death. Police have scrutinized Bradley Cooper though, collecting DNA evidence from him and searching his computers for signs that he researched how to dispose of a body.

Ball's account of her year-and-a-half relationship with Cooper comes as part of a tense custody battle for Cooper's young daughters.

The girls, 4-year-old Bella and 2-year-old Katie, have been living with Nancy Cooper's parents and sister in Canada pending a final decision on who should raise the girls.

Bradley Cooper is fighting this week to have his daughters returned to him. Wake District Court Judge Debra Sasser today rejected his motion to dismiss his in-laws' petition for custody of the girls. Sasser is scheduled to hold a custody hearing Thursday.

Nancy Cooper's friends and family have described Bradley Cooper as cruel and controlling to his wife. They said he withheld money for his wife to buy groceries for the girls and had affairs with other women. The couple was in the process of separating when Nancy Cooper was killed.

Ball had a similar description of Cooper in the affidavit, which was filed by lawyers for Nancy Cooper's families. "He was emotionally detached and mentally cruel," she said.

Cooper gave Ball's name incorrectly as "Wilson" during a deposition earlier this month. In her affidavit, she said she suspected that he intentionally had called her by the wrong name.