All About Alex Cooper, Host of the Call Her Daddy Podcast

Get to know Alex Cooper, the name behind one of the most successful woman-led podcasts to date.

If the name doesn't sound familiar, you might recognize her as "Father Cooper" (per her Instagram handle that boasts 2.3 million followers), most notable for her hosting duties on the record-breaking Call Her Daddy podcast.

Self-titled the "Founding Father," Cooper has taken the podcast in a direction that's evolved tremendously since its release in 2018. Originally synonymous with its sex-heavy topics in what was branded "female locker-room talk," her podcast now puts "a modern twist on feminism" in each episode that airs, according to marketing materials.

While Call Her Daddy covers a wide-range of topics in typical podcast fashion, Cooper notably turns heads for her tell-all interviews with some of the highest-profiled talent in Hollywood. Guests have included Miley Cyrus, Chelsea Handler, John Mayer, Kelsea Ballerini and fake German heiress Anna Delvey.

In June 2021, Cooper and Spotify made a three-year deal worth more than $60 million in total, per Variety, which makes it the streaming platform's biggest exclusive deal for a female-led podcast ever. "I want to be the biggest podcast in the world," Cooper revealed to the Wall Street Journal the year of the agreement.

With an annual salary of $20 million, Cooper is now the highest-paid female podcaster on Spotify — and second only to Joe Rogan overall, the Los Angeles Times reported in June 2022. "A woman just got what in the past would've been a male contract," she told the outlet.

Cooper announced her engagement to Hollywood producer Matt Kaplan in an April 23, 2023, interview with W Magazine. She revealed that Kaplan popped the question on March 3 at their home in Los Angeles. "It was very surreal," she said of the proposal.

Here's everything to know about Cooper, from her days as a Division I college athlete to her globally recognized career.

Her podcast was acquired by Barstool Sports before Spotify

Prior to Cooper's three-year Spotify deal in 2021, Barstool Sports acquired Call Her Daddy approximately one month after its first episode aired in 2018.

Since the podcast's debut, the show's structure has evolved tremendously. Among one of the major changes? Cooper now hosts solo, a duty that came after parting ways with Sofia Franklyn — her former co-host, best friend and business partner — in April 2020.

The podcast went dark that year, leading tabloids and fans — deemed the "Daddy Gang" — to speculate about a fallout between Cooper and Franklyn, especially since the two posted that they "legally can't speak out" on the behind-the-scenes talk at the time.

Details remain murky as to what exactly caused the partnership to "go up in flames," as Time put it, but it was in part due to a contract renegotiation with Barstool Sports. Ultimately, Cooper picked Call Her Daddy back up, while Franklyn started her own show a few months later.

She's evolved her podcast to focus more on female empowerment

For years, Call Her Daddy was synonymous with sex. It was known for raunchy talk and coining concepts like the "Gluck Gluck 9000" (an oral sex technique, FYI), keeping with the program's original "female locker-room talk" ethos.

Today, Cooper still exudes big-sister energy with the sex advice she distributes, but her content has evolved and expanded — despite people telling her "they miss the old Call Her Daddy," she told the Los Angeles Times. Now, she covers a wider range of topics and caters to a broader demographic.

"It was like, 'How many times can we talk about sex?'" she told the Los Angeles Times. "I was getting a little bit bored. I need to be mentally stimulated by my content."

Since then, topics on the show have included "reclaiming your power" after experiencing trauma, sexual fluidity, self-love and debunking mental health stigmas. Most of all, she wants to expand her conversations into the realm of female empowerment.

She's interviewed some of Hollywood's biggest stars

Furthermore, Call Her Daddy has taken on an interview-heavy format, featuring conversations between Cooper and some of the biggest names in Hollywood. The Q&A style is intimate, and Cooper gets stars to be candid about headline-making topics.

For example, when Jamie Lynn Spears was a guest on the show, she hoped to put to rest the accusations that she didn't help her sister Britney throughout her conservatorship. Hailey Baldwin Bieber revealed her favorite sex position with husband Justin Bieber, while Jane Fonda opened up about the "secret life" she used to live while struggling with an eating disorder.

She's engaged

Cooper confirmed her engagement to Kaplan in an interview with W Magazine, which was published on April 24, 2023.

In the interview, the podcast host said Kaplan proposed on March 3 at their home in L.A. The podcaster arrived home to find candles, music and a scavenger hunt.

"I like, blacked out," Cooper recalled of the moment Kaplan proposed. "I think I said yes at first. It was very surreal."

Their engagement came after three years of dating, during most of which Cooper kept Kaplan's identity a secret from her fans. When mentioning him on her podcast, she would refer to him as only "Mr. Sexy Zoom Man" until revealing his identity in April 2023.

Cooper discussed her "wedding planning disaster" on Call Her Daddy in August 2023. She shared that the couple struggled to determine a location for their nuptials. After considering Utah, London, and Tennessee, they settled on having a tropical wedding.

"I don't want it to be somewhere people can publicly consume our wedding," Cooper said, noting that Hawaii's public beaches were off the table. "I want it to be somewhere that matters to us."

She went on to explain that her priority on the big day is to be "present" with Kaplan.

"It’s so important to me that Matt and I actually have this day to ourselves. I refuse to not be present with my partner," the podcast host said. "I would rather have every f---ng person at our wedding have the worst goddamn time and Matt and I f---ing thrive."

Her parents have 'always been' her 'number one supporters'

Although Cooper's fanbase has primarily consisted of millennials and Gen-Z over the years, there are two people who have been loyal followers since day one: her parents.

"They have always been my number one supporters," Cooper told Today. "Even when people in my extended family would be like, 'Has she lost her mind?', my parents were like, 'No, because we know Alex and we know how we raised her and we know her talent.'"

Cooper's mom Laurie, a psychologist, has appeared on Call Her Daddy several times in the past. But while Cooper has created a name for herself as a go-to for advice, she's also gained some guidance from the person who knows her best.

"If she's talking to me about relationships, it's like, 'Do not lose yourself just to be with someone. Stay true to who you are,'" Cooper told E! News. "I think that goes through to every other aspect whether that's job, friendship, life, career."

She was a former Division I athlete at Boston University

If there's something Cooper wants to make clear, it's that her success wasn't something that she just "fell into." Having attended Boston University as a Division I soccer player while majoring in film and television, the Call Her Daddy host worked hard to land where she is now.

Cooper's publicist considers her a "one-woman operation," the Los Angeles Times reported. In addition to recording her own podcasts, she researches and edits almost entirely herself. According to Time, Spotify claims she's the most "hands-on" podcasting talent on its roster.

"There's this assumption that making a podcast is easy, but it's a lot of f—ing work. I take it with great pride that my whole life revolves around it," she told the Los Angeles Times. "Every Sunday I'm working, I work seven days a week. And I love it. I would not want to do anything else."

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