Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy is weighing in on Alex Cooper and Sofia Franklyn’s resurfaced drama in his first interview since the latter’s debut memoir, Daddy Issues, hit shelves.
“Alex sort of haunts her. Alex becomes the biggest female podcaster in the world, using her IP ‘Unwell’ for a drink and a podcast and all these things,” Claudia Oshry said in Us’ exclusive clip of the Wednesday, November 11, episode of her podcast, “The Toast.”
Portnoy, 49, chimed in to add, “That was stupid by Alex. I don’t know why she did that.”
When Oshry, 32, pointed out that Cooper, also 32, “had unlimited resources” to “hire a branding agency” and create something other than the Unwell Network name in 2023, Portnoy replied, “I mean, it is a great name. But I think it was Sofia’s joke.”
Cooper and Franklyn, 34, who created and cohosted Barstool’s “Call Her Daddy” podcast in 2018, had a public friendship fallout after contract negotiations in 2020. Cooper ultimately received full ownership of “Call Her Daddy,” which remained with Barstool until 2021 when it moved to Spotify. She has since signed a $125 million deal with SiriusXM and created her Unwell Network.
Franklyn has claimed that the origin of the “Unwell” name came from an email she sent while working at Morgan Stanley. This story was originally told on an early “Call Her Daddy” episode — which Claudia’s cohost, Jackie Oshry, recalled on Wednesday, noting that there’s a “paper trail” of Franklyn coining the name.
“I don’t think anybody disputes that,” Portnoy said on Wednesday. “That was a misstep by [Cooper], I think.”
After leaving “Call Her Daddy” behind, Franklyn launched her “Sofia With an F” podcast in 2020. Years later, she shared her side of the story in her debut memoir, Daddy Issues, which hit shelves on Tuesday, November 10.
“I think the internet sees me as one way, which I love and is a part of me,” Franklyn said during a June 2025 episode of the “Sofia With an F” podcast. “There’s always going to be the ‘Call Her Daddy,’ Barstool thing, right? Sexual, ditzy, which, I mean, I am those things. I can be sexual and ditzy and smart at the same time, you know? But also I think, after the drama, I had this really hard exterior because I was so scared.”
She continued, “I’m still kind of trying to crawl out of that, but I think in order to do that, I should be really open about it.”
