Alex Cooper has addressed the explosive claims made by her former Barstool boss Dave Portnoy in his recent memoir.
Cooper, 31, previously worked for Portnoy when her Call Her Daddy podcast fell under the Barstool umbrella until she and former co-host Sofia Franklyn dramatically split from the company in 2021.
Portnoy, 49, hinted that the split was far from amicable when he made a series of bombshell allegations in his memoir, Cancel Me If You Can, earlier this year, including that Cooper and Franklyn threatened to concoct a bogus sexual harassment claim to get out of their contracts.
However, Cooper appeared to brush off the claims when she appeared on CNBC’s ‘Squawk Box’ to clear the air over her ‘complicated’ relationship with the media mogul.
When asked to comment on Portnoy’s claims, the popular podcaster attempted to dodge the question, answering: ‘Dave’s got his version and I’ve got my version, and we’re all good.’
According to Portnoy’s version of events, back in 2020, talks over a new contract sparked a series of remarkable moments, including an alleged threat made by the two female hosts in the weeks before they split.
Alex Cooper addressed Dave Portnoy’s bombshell sexual harassment plot allegations
Portnoy claimed that Cooper and former Call Her daddy co-host Sofia Franklyn threatened to concoct a bogus sexual harassment claim to get out of their contracts
In a bid to force through their contract demands, Portnoy claimed the Call Her Daddy hosts ‘simply stopped putting out their podcast’, sparking the possibility of the Barstool supremo suing them for breach of contract.
According to his memoir, the angry back-and-forth led to a secret meeting on the rooftop of Portnoy’s apartment building, in which he proposed ‘the most generous offer in Barstool history’, claiming it would have made them instant millionaires.
The girls went away and what Portnoy alleged happened next could have brought Barstool to its knees.
‘Out of nowhere, I got a call from Alex asking if she could meet with me again… without Sofia,’ he wrote. ‘I said yes and we once again trekked up to my rooftop. “I love the deal you proposed, and I want to take it. But Sofia is never going to take it.”
‘”Okay,” I said. “You guys realize I’ll sue you if you take the podcast to another network before your contract is out, right?” Alex claimed to me that they had a plan to say they were both sexually harassed at Barstool.
He later added: ‘For years, Barstool and I had been pilloried for making sexist jokes, but we’d never been accused of inappropriate workplace conduct. But had they decided to go that route, even though it was patently untrue, it would have been a tough fight for us to win in the court of public opinion. Nobody would have believed my side of the story.
‘I realize that this is a heavy accusation I just made: how Call Her Daddy was allegedly planning to break their contract with us by lying about sexual harassment at Barstool.’
Requests for comment on Portnoy’s claims to both Cooper and Franklyn from the Daily Mail went unanswered at the time.
Cooper worked for Portnoy when her Call Her Daddy podcast fell under the Barstool umbrella
Call Her Daddy rose to prominence as a Barstool podcast before an ugly split in 2020
Portnoy’s memoir is published via Gallery Books
However, Cooper, who is pregnant with her first child with husband Matt Kaplan, insisted on Wednesday that that particular tale is not how she recalled the events unfolding.
‘Whenever I see Dave online, we all enjoy his banter. He is a very entertaining person, and I have a very great and complicated relationship with Dave,’ she told Squawk Box. ‘He gave me my start in this industry and I will never not be grateful to him.
‘I haven’t read the book, but I remember seeing, obviously getting tagged in those things, and that’s not how I remember that at all. But I also am like, Dave’s got his version, and I’ve got my version, and we’re all good.’
But she refused to elaborate further on her side of the story, stating: ‘I’m in my mother era. I have no drama right now.’
In her 2025 Hulu documentary, Cooper alleged that she had been sexually harassed by her Boston University soccer coach while at the school.
Responding to Cooper’s initial allegations at the time, the University wrote; ‘Boston University has a zero-tolerance policy for sexual harassment.
‘We have a robust system of resources, support and staff dedicated to student wellbeing and a thorough reporting process through our Equal Opportunity Office.
‘We encourage members of our community to report any concerns, and we remain committed to fostering a safe and secure campus environment for all.’
