Irina Shayk says she felt she was 'supposed to be a boy'

In a new interview, model Irina Shayk has revealed she struggled with gender identity growing up.

Speaking to British Vogue, the model, who recently separated from Bradley Cooper, admitted she "always felt like I was born in the wrong body".

"I felt I was supposed to be a boy," she told the magazine. "I don't know why… Maybe it's because my father always wanted a boy."

Shayk's father passed away from pneumonia when she was just 14, and the experience, she says, shaped the way she saw herself as she tried to move on from the tragic incident with her mother and older sister.

"When my father passed away, I thought, 'Since I'm a guy, now it's my time to take care of the family,'" she explained.

"I said to myself I would never get married — of course, later on in life, I outgrew that and I love being a woman, but I remember that feeling."

Taking on a dominant role while growing up, has affected the way men see her, the 34-year-old suggests.

"I have a strong personality and I definitely know what I want, and I think some men are scared of that," she said.

Shayk and Cooper were together for four years together before splitting last yeasplitting last yea.

"I think in all good relationships you bring your best and your worst — it's just the nature of a human being," she said about the break-up. "Two great people don't have to make a good couple."

"I think we've been very lucky to experience what we had with each other," she added. "Life without B is new ground."