NEED TO KNOW
- Sofia Franklyn, former co-host of Call Her Daddy, has been on a press tour to promote her new memoir, Daddy Issues
- Dave Portnoy, owner of Barstool Sports, the former home of the podcast, has responded to a passage in the memoir that insinuates he slept with Franklyn’s co-host Alex Cooper
- Portnoy said: “She knows for a fact that’s not true” and that he and Cooper “didn’t even like each other”
The Call Her Daddy drama keeps getting messier. The latest? Dave Portnoy has addressed speculation in Sofia Franklyn’s new memoir, Daddy Issues, that he slept with Alex Cooper.
Franklyn has been on a media tour this past week promoting the book, which details the fallout from the Call Her Daddy contract negotiations. She co-founded and co-hosted the podcast with Cooper, and the pair were signed to Barstool Sports, which Portnoy owns. The duo disagreed over a new deal, and Cooper ended up signing alone, leaving Franklyn out.
On an episode of Tea by The Toast, hosted by sisters Jackie and Claudia Oshry and released Wednesday, November 11, Portnoy weighed in on the passage of Franklyn’s book that insinuates he and Cooper had slept together.
“You have to go through everything,” Portnoy said, via People. “And, I haven’t read the book. You can get away with being like, ‘Hey. I got a feeling that she’s been here. She slept with Dave before.”
Host Jackie Oshry replied: “She said that’s a feeling. She didn’t say that they did, so we all are left to wonder. Sure.”
“She knows for a fact that’s not true,” Portnoy said.
“You guys ever kiss or make out or anything?” Claudia asked.
“We didn’t even like each other,” said Portnoy.
When Jackie told Portnoy fans wanted him and Cooper, who just had a baby with husband Matt Kaplan, to date, he said he hadn’t been aware.
In the book, Franklyn says she and Cooper visited Portnoy’s apartment in 2020 during contract negotiations. She wrote: “His apartment is a mess and looks exactly like the Barstool offices, with the addition of a fish tank. This is the apartment of a short man-child with too much money.”
“I expect Alex to make a joke about the place, but she’s uncharacteristically awkward and doesn’t say a thing. Something gives me the vibe she’s been here before. Jesus Christ, did they f–k or something?”
Cooper and Franklyn launched the podcast in 2018 and, after a few episodes, signed with Barstool Sports on a three-year contract under which Barstool owned the show’s intellectual property (IP). When the podcast became wildly popular, Franklyn alleges in her book that Portnoy offered the duo US$500,000 each to stay for another year, as well as the opportunity to secure the IP.
Franklyn wanted to go independent, while Cooper ultimately chose to stay with Barstool. In 2024, Cooper signed a three-year, US $125 million deal with SiriusXM to make it the home of Call Her Daddy and The Unwell Network, the multimedia company she launched with Kaplan in 2023. Franklyn launched her own podcast Sofia With An F in 2020 after leaving Call Her Daddy.
