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You might be living under a rock if you don't know about Alex Cooper. As the host of "Call Her Daddy," one of the most popular podcasts in the world, she has the unique ability to get interviews with the biggest celebrities while also getting them to speak openly and candidly. She's talked to Hailey Bieber, Miley Cyrus, Chelsea Handler, Goop queen Gwyneth Paltrow, and Vice President Kamala Harris. Her show is known for intimate conversations, though it was previously known for its sex-centric gossip. Cooper has moved it in the direction of "female empowerment," acknowledging to the LA Times, "How many times can we talk about sex? I was getting a little bit bored. I need to be mentally stimulated by my content."
Cooper's podcast remains stimulating, having first raked in a $60 million deal to distribute her show on Spotify through 2024 and more recently signing a three-year deal worth $125 million to jump over to SiriusXM. It's the kind of success that lends real credence to Cooper telling the Hollywood Reporter that she wants to make her sex-positive and female-empowered brand "the biggest podcast in the world." And while it may not be weird in your traditional sense, it does speak to the ways in which Cooper has managed to find a massive audience while talking about things women sometimes don't publicly talk about. But like any good media empress who got her start discussing all the different people she's slept with, Cooper has a couple of weird quirks and stories that have made her the millionaire podcast-lebrity that she is today.
Her parents have no problem listening to her tell it all
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While it might be weird for most people to talk explicitly about their sexual histories, knowing that their parents are going to hear it, Alex Cooper is all about it. She told the "Today" show: "[My parents] have always been my number one supporters. Even when people in my extended family were like, 'Has she lost her mind?' my parents were like, 'No.'" Cooper said that her mom would listen to every episode of her show over coffee and tell her dad which episodes to listen to and which ones to skip, presumably because Cooper was dishing out too much intimate information. To further prove that mother and daughter are cut from the same cloth, Cooper said that her mother quipped about her often-revealing conversations by saying, "You haven't taught me one new thing."
In the same interview, Cooper mentions that she often gets moms reaching out as new fans, saying that they were introduced to the podcast through their daughter. Cooper added, "Past generations were not as open as now we have become," adding, "I think it's healthy that parents listen to what their children are interested in."
She was a 'cynic' about marriage (and is now married)
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While the podcast began when Cooper was unmarried and very much ready to mingle, she has since gone off the market. In 2024, Cooper married 40-year-old producer Matt Kaplan in Riviera Maya, Mexico. According to Vogue, the two did not initially meet in person but first locked eyes on a Zoom meeting during the pandemic. Cooper's agent had set up some meetings for her, and her last one of the day was with ACE Productions, Kaplan's company. She told Vogue, "I got on Zoom and immediately started thinking, 'Wow, this producer is very handsome — but, stay focused Alex.' There were about five other people on the Zoom from his company, but I kept just staring at Matt's video square." Forever transparent, when speaking about Kaplan on "Call Her Daddy," Cooper called him "Mr. Sexy Zoom Man" until finally revealing his identity in 2023.
Perhaps in line with some of the more nontraditional "Call Her Daddy" topics, Cooper said she didn't really prioritize getting married. "I had always been a cynic when it came to marriage," she told Vogue. "[But,] from the beginning of our relationship, I was honest with Matt and told him I might be more interested in the whole 'life partner' route." But she says that reflecting on her own (very supportive) parents' 40-year marriage helped change her mind about hearing wedding bells in her own future.
It wasn't always a one woman show
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For most listeners, when thinking of "Call Her Daddy," they think of Alex Cooper and a guest sitting across from each other on a pair of comfy chairs. But that wasn't always the case. Cooper had a co-host named Sofia Franklyn from 2018 until 2020, when, in the middle of the pandemic, the show went on hiatus. At the time, the podcast belonged to Barstool Sports. However, former co-host Franklyn's boyfriend, sports executive Peter Nelson, began secretly shopping the show around to other interested parties. When word got out about this, Dave Portnoy of Barstool Sports offered a generous new contract for Cooper and Franklyn, which Cooper reportedly agreed to but which Franklyn would not agree due to loyalties to her boyfriend wanting to take the show elsewhere.
However, it came to light that Cooper may have taken the meeting with Portnoy to discuss the new deal without Franklyn. Additionally, Cooper was at one point paid more than Franklyn, and Franklyn allegedly kept asking for more money. Cooper ultimately said she didn't see a way to make it work with Franklyn but would stay with Barstool Sports, and thus, the solo iteration of the show was born. Franklyn would go on to start a new podcast called "Sofia with an F," which she hosts alone. The messy parting of ways would become one of the many tragic details that have made Cooper and "Call Her Daddy" a force they are today.
She never took a sex ed class
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Despite being able to speak openly about sex and women's lives, Alex Cooper never once took a sex education class. Time wrote that in high school — when offered the choice between an elective health class and a video production class — she chose to learn how to make videos. The decision to focus on media over cringey explanations of how babies are made stemmed from a childhood fascination with television and films (which she later majored in during college). According to the outlet, "she'd type out the lines of 'The Devil Wears Prada' as she watched, then hand out scripts to friends to playact in the basement." As she got older, instead of textbooks, Cooper turned to television, enjoying "Laguna Beach" and "The Hills" to gain insight into women's sex lives.
It wasn't until after high school that she found some academic refuge in a gender studies course, which helped her better understand why she was so interested in those shows' portrayals of sex and relationships. She tells Time of her realization, saying, "The thread between all those shows was that the women were the drama, that the women were so emotional." It makes tons of sense if you listen to her show why women and drama became her calling card.
Her relationship with a Red Sox player changed everything
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Cooper credits an especially intense relationship when she was still in college as a germination point for much of what she talks about in "Call Her Daddy." After enrolling at Boston University as a soccer player, Cooper told Time that she later found herself dating a Boston Red Sox player a decade her senior. Apparently, he was fresh off a World Series win and had more money than he could ever spend. She admitted the wealth and lifestyle she got a taste of at such a young age was captivating. Internet sleuths have done the digging, and while it has not been confirmed, rumors suggest the player could be Mike Napoli.
But it wasn't the healthiest relationship. She said during her chat with Time, "He opened my eyes to truly some of the most psychotic, intense games to be played in a relationship." According to her interview with Time, the rollercoaster relationship had a power imbalance, one she was interested in controlling. The experience planted the seed for her to begin jetting around to date other famous people, picking up stories and experiences that laid the foundation for much of the lived-in dialogue of her podcast, always centering women and always focusing on the inherent drama of their lives. When asked if the celeb dating life is aspirational to her listeners, Cooper gave sound advice: "We all go through our s**t. But you're going to be able to figure it out."
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