Dave Portnoy claims ‘Call Her Daddy’ hosts planned to accuse Barstool of sexual harassment to get out of contracts

Dave Portnoy has a new book coming out, along with a spiffy Wall Street Journal profile piece to go with it.

As one might expect, that means the Barstool Sports founder has some big claims to make about his media empire’s rise and how he’s kept it successful and profitable despite critics and controversy.

“Dave Portnoy Has One Rule for Success: Hire Great People and ‘Let Them Run Wild’” from Joshua Chaffin hit the WSJ on Friday night, and includes many of the usual topics about Portnoy. A recounting of his rise, examples of how he’s maintained success, and how he’s staved off the many, many times he and Barstool have been accused of misogyny, racism, and more.

Within the piece, there are references to Call Her Daddy, the raunchy advice-and-comedy podcast created by Alex Cooper and Sofia Franklyn in 2018. The infamous podcast was a huge hit for Barstool, but by 2020, Cooper and Franklyn were at odds with Portnoy, and their partnership was starting to show signs of fraying. Franklyn ended up leaving the show, while Cooper continued to host the podcast at Barstool until 2021, when she signed an exclusive deal with Spotify and eventually launched the Unwell Network.

While Call Her Daddy was a prime example of Barstool as an incubator for rising talent, it also proved a cautionary experience for Portnoy, showing how success often leads people to take their talents elsewhere.

While the dramatic disputes between Cooper, Franklyn, and Portnoy are well-documented, the Barstool owner did drop a shocking allegation in the Wall Street Journal profile.

“Cooper, he claims, told him she and Franklyn had a plan to say they were sexually harassed at Barstool to get out of their contract,” wrote Chaffin.

Portnoy is specifically quoted as saying Cooper and Franklyn were “willing to step on my neck and burn any bridge to get ahead” and that “the dirty little secret nobody else knew about [“Call Her Daddy”]: The girls hated each other.”

It had previously been reported that, before leaving Barstool, Franklyn was involved in a relationship with Peter Nelson, an executive at HBO Sports. Portnoy had accused Nelson of advising Franklyn to refuse Barstool’s contract offer while also “quietly shopping them even though they were still under contract with Barstool.”

In 2024, Cooper said that she and Franklyn disagreed over the podcast’s future and IP, which contributed to the breakdown of their friendship and working relationship.

“I think less about the specific person. The thought is: I’m so happy that I trusted myself and fought for this IP [the Call Her Daddy brand and show archive],” Cooper told The Hollywood Reporter. “Because I will never forget the day [Barstool founder] Dave Portnoy offered us that IP on a rooftop, and I was so elated and being like, ‘I will stay another year. I’ll do whatever it takes. I want that IP.’ Because I had put so much sweat equity into this — marketing, editing, writing, all of it.”

In her 2025 documentary Call Her Alex, Cooper claimed her college soccer coach at Boston University, Nancy Feldman, isolated and sexually harassed her until she left the team at the end of her junior year. 99 BU women’s soccer alumni signed a letter standing in support of Feldman afterward.

“Cancel Me If You Can” will be released on June 30th. Given Portnoy wrote it himself after eschewing an attempted version by a ghost writer, we’re likely in store for more significant admissions about him and Barstool’s history.