Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images | Scott Utterback/Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Dave Portnoy says Call Her Daddy host plotted to make sexual harassment allegations
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy has further opened up about the departure of popular podcast Call Her Daddy from the company’s network. Portnoy claims that then co-hosts Alex Cooper and Sofia Franklyn were plotting to accuse the company of sexual harassment in order to get out of their contracts.
Call Her Daddy was started by Alex Cooper and Sofia Franklyn, then roommates, in October 2018 and was picked up by Barstool Sports a month later.
The podcast was a concerted effort by Barstool Sports to reach a larger female audience, and for a time, it worked: Call Her Daddy exploded to become one of the most popular women-hosted podcasts in the country.
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy says that Call Her Daddy plotted to make sexual harassment accusations to get out of contract
Call Her Daddy became so successful, however, that in June 2021 it moved over to Spotify in a $60 million deal. By that time, the podcast was only hosted by Cooper, with Franklyn acrimoniously departing the show in 2020, with Dave Portnoy saying the pair “hated” each other.
In order to sign a new deal, the Call Her Daddy brand had to get out of their old one with Barstool, which Portnoy — speaking to the Wall Street Journal to promote his new memoir — says led to them scheming to level sexual harassment accusations against the company.
“The gamble paid off and the female-first advice and comedy podcast became a phenomenon, so much so that Call Her Daddy had seemingly outgrown Barstool, which led to fraught contract negotiations with Cooper and Franklyn in 2020 and an eventual breakup. Portnoy says that Cooper and Franklyn were ‘willing to step on my neck and burn any bridge to get ahead.'”
“Portnoy makes the claim in the WSJ interview that Cooper told him that she and Franklyn had a plan to say they were sexually harassed at Barstool to get out of their contracts. For context, Barstool as a company, and Portnoy personally, have consistently been accused of peddling misogyny over the years.” [via THR]
In August 2024, Cooper and Call Her Daddy — which has since expanded to launch its own podcast network, Unwell Network, aimed at Gen Z audiences — left Spotify and signed a deal with SiriusXM worth $125 million.