Rumors that Alex Cooper, the 32-year-old host of the Call Her Daddypodcast, and 25-year-old internet star Alix Earle are feuding have circulated for more than a year, with some critics calling the beef a PR stunt. Now, Earle is speaking out about the drama in her Netflix reality series,Earle Meets World, which hit the streaming platform on Sept. 4.
In the series, which chronicles Earle’s life in the spotlight, she talks about her souring relationship with Cooper, whose company, Unwell Network, launched Earle’s podcast, Hot Mess,in 2023. Unwell dropped the podcast in 2025 — news Earle said she only learned about from the media.
“They were a startup company at the time, so things weren’t gonna go great,” Earle explained. “But there was just constantly issues. It just wasn’t run properly and it wasn’t what I was promised or told that it was gonna be like working with them.”
Earle and her father say that she wasn’t given the proper re as Cooper was her “idol” at the time, and that she “felt taken advantage of and used and mistreated and manipulated” by the Call Her Daddyhost
Earle pointed to her 2023 appearance on Call Her Daddyas one example.
“We’re filming her podcast and she’s having us drink before,” Earle said. “And then asking me really sexual questions I wasn’t comfortable with. But then I’m also answering ’cause I’m drunk.”
Earle also shared a text she had contemplated sending to Cooper, though it’s unclear whether she ever sent it.
“I wanted to write you directly to let you know I don’t like you,” the text began. “I’m not gonna fall for your bait of getting into a back-and-forth online, and I don’t think you want that either. You are manipulative and toxic. Go ahead and say ‘it’s just business’ all you want, but the way you approach business is disgusting. You choose money over morals.”
She also wrote that Cooper took advantage of her at a young age and was full of “false promises.”
“We had a call where you threatened me to not go to war with you because you know how sick and twisted you are,” Earle wrote.
Earle added that while she may be “petty,” she is not “malicious.”
“If there’s one thing I learned from doing business with you, it’s to never do business with anyone like you,” she concluded.
So, how, exactly, did we get to this point? From their brief stint as business partners to allegations of starting “fake drama,” Yahoo is breaking down their beef.
Earle signs with Cooper’s Unwell Network and launches ‘Hot Mess’ podcast
Earle was signed to Cooper’s Unwell Network, a Gen Z-focused media company that curates unfiltered conversations with creators, in August 2023. Earle launched and hosted her own podcast, Hot Mess With Alix Earle, a month later, in September 2023, where she spoke candidly about her life and relationships in a voicey, “get ready with me”-style vlog.
“I feel honored to be at a place in my career where I can pass along knowledge and advice for a new generation of creators to flourish,” Cooper said in a statement back then.
Unwell drops Earle and her podcast
Trouble appeared to be brewing in early 2025 when Earle didn’t attend Unwell’s Super Bowl party in New Orleans, despite reportedly being in the city with her then-boyfriend, Miami Dolphins wide receiver Braxton Berrios. Then the news officially broke: Earle was dropped from the Unwell Network in February 2025, prompting the podcast to go on an indefinite hiatus.
With regard to her work, Earle said she had “no idea what’s going on” in a TikTok video posted days after Hot Messwas axed. She shared another update in March 2025, announcing that she’d “have to put a pause on podcasting right now for the foreseeable future.”
“Don’t really want to get into the details of it all, and I kind of can’t get into the details of it all right now, but I’ve loved it so, so much, and I’m really proud of what I built with the podcast,” Earle said.
Cooper said Unwell Network had nothing to do with Earle’s inability to continue podcasting. She addressed Earle’s exit from Unwell, writing in a TikTok video also posted in March 2025, “Alix not being able to podcast has nothing to do with Unwell. Idk why she can’t/whats going on. Unwell gave her everything back she owns her IP.”
Earle is ready to spill the tea — and Cooper claps back
In a Wall Street Journal feature published in May 2025, Earle offered brief insight into what went down between her and Cooper. Choosing her words carefully, Earle told the outlet, “That was, behind the scenes, a little bit of a hot mess.”
Earle seemed ready to spill the tea by August 2025. In a TikTok referring to her horoscope, she said, “My Co-Star told me that I can start shit today. I mean, is this my time that I’ve been waiting for to go? I have so much information. We could go. I think I’m losing my mind … but I wake up every day, and I’m like, ‘What should I do, Co-Star?’ And today, it’s like, ‘Revenge. Let’s go get ’em.'”
Seems vague enough, right? Well, not quite. One TikToker commented on Earle’s video, “Yes tell us what happened with alex cooper thank you,” to which Earle replied, “how much time do you have.”
Cooper wasn’t silent for long. The Call Her Daddyhost appeared to mock Earle’s Dancing With the Starsperformance in an Instagram post in October 2025, promoting an Unwell event in Las Vegas. She used Britney Spears’s “Circus” — the same song Earle, a contestant at that time, had danced to. Cooper’s Instagram caption also seemed to refer to Earle’s response to a TikToker, writing, “How much time do you have? Cause we could go all night.”
Earle cosigns critique that Cooper is ‘a grim reaper,’ and Cooper directly addresses Earle
On April 9, Earle appeared to repost a TikTok video from Ashley Tiscareno, a creator who likened Cooper to the grim reaper.
“She’s so awful,” the creator said of Cooper. “She is profiting off of women’s heartaches and failures, and all these awful things that happen to women. She’s profiting off of it. That’s not girl power.”
After learning of Earle’s repost, Cooper finally addressed the drama in a TikTok video posted on April 13. With Earle’s TikTok handle as the caption, Cooper urged the Dancing With the Starsalum to come forward and speak the truth. Cooper said that while she doesn’t “usually address this kind of stuff” because it’s a “waste of time” and “honestly embarrassing to participate in this,” it ultimately felt long overdue.
“Alix Earle, hey girl. The passive-aggressive reposts and the likes and the commenting on things, I gotta call you out here. You’re gonna need to get specific and just say what you gotta say about me,” Cooper said. “There’s no [nondisclosure agreement]. No one is stopping you. Stop hiding behind other people and just say it yourself. What’s the beef? ‘Cause I’m really tired of waking up and seeing you using this fake drama to distract from other shit going online for you.”
Cooper added, “I know what happened and so do you. So talk, unless the fake narrative you’re creating happens to be way more interesting than the truth.”
In addition to reposting Cooper’s video to her TikTok profile, Earle also left a comment, which read, “Okay on it!!”
Earle posts her reaction to Cooper’s video
Days after Cooper’s video, Earle shared her reaction to Cooper’s callout in her own TikTok post. “If you’re wondering this is How I was woken up the Morning after Coachella,” Earle wrote alongside the clip, which shows her smirking while watching it in bed.
“Wait, that literally just made my whole day,” Earle quipped.
Cooper calls Brianna ‘Chickenfry’ LaPaglia out for adding on to the ‘fake narrative’
The feud then took a turn days later, when Brianna “Chickenfry” LaPaglia, the 27-year-old social media personality and podcaster, entered the chat — prompting another clapback from Cooper.
LaPaglia, a podcaster with Barstool Sports, the media company that first produced Call Her Daddy,had been speaking negatively about her in social media comments while defending Earle. Cooper said that while Earle “tries to get her story together, let me address Brianna Chickenfry, who is adding onto the fake narrative and dog pile.”
“Brianna, you coming online saying I’m a mean girl, that I’m going to get destroyed, in peoples comments saying I hate Alex Cooper,” Cooper wrote in her Instagram story. “Here are the facts. I have never met you in my life. The only communication we have ever had together is through dm.”
Cooper then posted screenshots of messages she and LaPaglia shared over Instagram direct messages. The screenshots Cooper posted appeared to show their message history beginning when LaPaglia warned Cooper about something Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy said during an episode of the BFFspodcast, which LaPaglia used to host with Portnoy and Josh Richards. According to LaPaglia, Portnoy told her that Cooper hated her. Cooper, in response, denied Portnoy’s claim and praised LaPaglia for “how great” she was doing at Barstool Sports.
Cooper and LaPaglia appeared to communicate on occasion going forward, including when the Call Her Daddyhost offered support when LaPaglia went through her public breakup with country star Zach Bryan. “So speaking of mean girls… have never met you in my life. What I just showed is the only interaction we’ve ever had. And you hate me? Wow,” Cooper wrote in a separate Instagram story, before bringing the beef back to Earle. “Now back to Alix. And no this is not a pr stunt.”
It wasn’t long before LaPaglia responded to Cooper.
“I was a fan of Alex Cooper before I knew about the wrath of f***ing Alex Cooper and what she does to people and how she treats people,” LaPaglia said in a video posted to her Instagram story on April 15. “I am friends with Alix Earle. Alix Earle told me everything that transpired between those two two years ago at the Super Bowl. She told me everything. It didn’t happen between them at the Super Bowl, but that’s when she told me everything.”
LaPaglia continued, “From what Alix Earle told me, Alex Cooper is a very, very mean person. … Yeah, maybe my f***ing narrative switched on you after I found things out about you. I used to be a fan.”
Yahoo has reached out to Cooper’s rep for comment.
