Call Her Daddy host Alex Cooper managed to turn her popular podcast into one of the most sought-after shows for female audiences across the globe. Yet, in her latest Hulu documentary series, Call Her Alex, Cooper finally acknowledged the crucial role played by her former co-host, Sofia Franklyn, in the show’s success.
In 2020, Sofia Franklyn made the surprising decision to part ways with Call Her Daddy, a podcast she had co-hosted with Cooper since its launch in 2018. While this move came as a shock to their fans, Cooper disclosed in the new Hulu series that there were undisclosed challenges and issues taking place backstage.
“When I was informed that my show was the most popular podcast among women worldwide, I thought, ‘Well, that is probably the most amazing statement ever’,” Cooper shared in the show, according to reports from People and US Weekly. “However, it became increasingly challenging to enjoy the entire process.”
Cooper then revealed that she and Franklyn had a complicated friendship.
“It was the classic, ‘You think you see something online and people genuinely believe you’re like sisters,’ but our relationship was so awful,” she said.
As Cooper described it, she and Franklyn ran into trouble after they renegotiated their contract with Barstool Sports, which she claimed made “millions of dollars” off the show.
“We absolutely deserved more money but unfortunately, we had signed a three-year contract with Barstool Sports, and they owned our IP,” Cooper said. “So Sofia and I went in together and we renegotiated our contract.”
Barstool Sports founder and CEO Dave Portnoy then came to them with “a deal of a lifetime.”
“He said, ‘If you stay at Barstool for one more year, you can own Call Her Daddy.’ Sofia didn’t want to take the deal, but I did, so I stayed,” Cooper claimed, later adding, “I realized the ‘Daddy Gang’ was bigger than both of us.”
Franklyn did not respond to Decider’s request for comment. But she previously revealed in an interview with Rolling Stone that she had multiple issues with how the negotiations occurred.
“I thought [Cooper was my] best friend, sister, and we are not hiding anything,” she said. “There’s no way in hell I would speak to our boss without you, that would be fucking crazy, and I don’t think that went both ways.”
She added, “Getting the IP back would’ve been great, but I’m not going to throw everything else out the fucking window.”
Franklyn has since struck out on her own and launched her own podcast, Sofia with an F.
Call Her Alex premieres on Hulu Tuesday, June 10.
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