The founder of Barstool Sports addressed the fallout between Sofia Franklyn and Alex Cooper

NEED TO KNOW

  • Dave Portnoy addressed an insinuation Sofia Franklyn made, suggesting the founder of Barstool Sports and Alex Cooper slept together
  • Franklyn detailed her suspicions in her memoir, Daddy Issues, while recalling the fallout over Call Her Daddy contract negotiations
  • Cooper stayed with Barstool Sports after the pair disagreed over a new deal for their hit podcast

Dave Portnoy is addressing speculation that he slept with Alex Cooper while responding to assertions made in Sofia Franklyn’s new memoir, Daddy Issues.

On the Nov. 11 episode of Tea by The Toast hosted by sisters Jackie and Claudia Oshry, the Barstool Sports founder, 49, said that he believed that Franklyn, 34, took some creative liberties with her book. “You have to go through everything … 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,’ ” he said.  

“She said that’s a feeling. She didn’t say that they did, so we all are left to wonder. Sure,” Jackie responded. 

“She knows for a fact that’s not true,” Portnoy said. 

“You guys ever kiss or make out or anything?” Claudia asked about Cooper, 32, and Portnoy.

“We didn’t even like each other,” Portnoy said. 

“People shipped you,” Jackie then offered, referencing that fans online wanted the pair to date. 

“Oh, that, that I was not aware of,” Portnoy replied.  

Cooper and Franklyn co-hosted the earliest iteration of Call Her Daddy, and in Daddy Issues, Franklyn recalled when she and Cooper were in contract renegotiations with the Barstool Sports founder and CEO. When they got to Portnoy’s apartment, Franklyn said that she got the sense that Cooper had been there before. 

“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,” she wrote in her book.

She added, “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?” 

According to Franklyn, Portnoy offered them the opportunity to own their podcast’s IP if they stayed with Barstool Sports for another year.

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“Ascending to Dave’s building’s rooftop, he makes a comment to Alex like she knows her way around, confirming my suspicion. I don’t have time to process anything further before Dave starts the ‘meeting’ with a lowball offer-$500,000 each with no alcohol ownership rights in perpetuity,” she wrote. 

“I feel so strongly that going independent at our peak will rocket us – merch profits, an alcohol brand, seeing more listener dollars in OUR pockets-but Alex feels just as strongly the other way, which in and of itself is persuasive. I feel so worn down. We’re killing ourselves and our friendship by endlessly trying to prove ourselves on diametrically opposed points. I feel severed from the person I’m fighting both against and for. It’s too backward,” she continued of the ongoing negotiations at the time. 

In June 2025, Cooper discussed her side of the fallout in Hulu’s Call Her Alex docuseries. As she recalled, the hit podcast was making “millions of dollars” for Barstool Sports, the original distributor of Call Her Daddy. In 2021, the podcast moved to Spotify before Cooper made a deal with SiriusXM in 2024.

“Sofia didn’t want to take the deal, but I did, so I stayed,” Cooper alleged on the series. Of her final decision, she concluded, “I realized the ‘Daddy Gang’ was bigger than both of us.”

Daddy Issues is out now where books are sold.

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