Alex Cooper: The Truth I Never Planned to Share...

Alex Cooper sits with Steven Bartlett for an unusually raw conversation tracing her path from a bullied, insecure kid in Newtown, Pennsylvania to running the biggest female podcast in the world. She discusses the dark mental-health toll of childhood bullying, her work in therapy on people-pleasing tendencies, and the co-dependent, toxic business relationship with her former co-host that nearly broke her. She reflects on the public villain/victim narrative around that fallout, the Spotify deal, and the strange psychological cost of exploiting her own life for content. She closes by talking about her secure current relationship, an upcoming business launch expanding the Call Her Daddy brand, and her long-term ambition to produce and direct.

• Alex found an old journal revealing she had suicidal thoughts as a bullied child, believing her death would make the bullies realize their impact.
  00:10:20
• She told her audience on her show that she was bullied before she ever told her own therapist.
  00:22:17
• She entered therapy primarily because of a deteriorating, co-dependent business and living situation with her former co-host.
  00:24:53
• She admits to extreme people-pleasing behavior keeping the show running, including 'getting people out of bed' and 'managing drugs and alcohol.'
  00:35:25
• In the public fallout, she says 'someone's gonna be the villain and I was the villain' but chose not to tell the full story.
  00:36:27
• Asked if she would call her former partner, she says no, settling on only 'I hope you're healthy and you're well.'
  00:38:30
• In her never-told-anyone confession, she admits her career and living so publicly genuinely scares her at times.
  01:29:23
• She teases a new business launching within a month that will expand the Call Her Daddy brand into new spaces.
  01:10:38

• Her father is a sports television producer who directed live hockey for the Philadelphia Flyers, inspiring her love of producing.
  00:02:35
• Her mother is a psychologist, making emotional check-ins and EQ a daily prerequisite in their household.
  00:05:10
• As a kid she remade The Devil Wears Prada with her soccer friends, playing the Miranda Priestly role.
  00:19:08
• Call Her Daddy debuted at number two right under Joe Rogan and at one point passed him before returning to second.
  00:41:06
• The show gets hundreds of millions of downloads a month despite being exclusive to one platform, Spotify.
  00:42:40
• She has never deleted a published episode, though she has roughly 100 recorded solo episodes she never uploaded.
  00:46:21
• The widely reported Spotify deal figure is around 60 million dollars.
  00:55:41
• Over the recent weekend she finally ended a toxic friendship after working on boundaries with her therapist.
  01:17:25
• She is 28 and has only been doing this publicly for four years, though it feels like a lifetime.
  01:31:59

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