Alix Earle TheStewartofNY/WireImage
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy wasted no time weighing in on the drama between Alex Cooper and Alix Earle.
After Variety reported on Tuesday, February 25, that Cooper’s Unwell Network had officially dropped Earle’s “Hot Mess” podcast from its roster, Portnoy, 47, took to social media to reveal he and Earle, 24, had a 22-minute phone conversation.
Portnoy shared a screenshot via both his Instagram Stories and Instagram grid of an outgoing call to “Alixearlenew” which took place at 4:47 p.m. that day.
The Barstool Sports founder, who was Cooper’s boss while she was employed by the company and helped Cooper launch her “Call Her Daddy” podcast in 2018 before it moved on to Spotify and later Sirius XM, captioned the Instagram grid post, “You can stop tagging me. I know what needs to be done 😘.”
In Portnoy’s two posts, the businessman was seen sipping from a can and wagging his finger into the camera as The Lion King’s “Circle of Life” by Furnace and the Fundamentals played in the background. He also pulled several faces and furrowed his brow at times, sparking a stream of speculation in the grid post’s comments section.
Us Weekly has reached out to a representative for Portnoy for further comment.
Dave Portnoy Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for h.Wood + DraftKings
While Portnoy did not confirm what he and Earle discussed during their conversation, fans took to the comments section to weigh in with their theories.
“I think it’s that her [Earle’s] podcast was stopped and barstool is trying to recruit her,” one fan wrote, while another suggested, “Grace [O’Malley] left Barstool and joined Alex Cooper’s unwell network. Now Alix Earle supposedly has left the Unwell network and now Dave is trying to get her to come to barstool.” (O’Malley previously worked at Barstool alongside Brianna Chickenfry before departing the company in December 2024 and joining Cooper’s Unwell Network to launch her podcast, “Disgraceful,” on Thursday, February 20.)
Earle’s departure from the Unwell Network followed social media speculation over her relationship with Cooper. The speculation reached fever pitch when Earle was noticeably absent from the Unwell Network’s Super Bowl party staged earlier this month — despite being in New Orleans, where the event took place.
Cooper launched the Unwell Network in August 2023, initially signing Earle and “Pretty Lonesome” host Madeline Argy in an effort to appeal to Gen Z audiences with “unique voices that embrace social challenges and personal insecurities through honest conversation.”
Cooper and Portnoy were caught up in a publicized dispute in 2020, while “Call Her Daddy” still sat within Barstool Sports. The dispute resulted in Cooper’s cohost, Sofia Franklyn, leaving the podcast as Cooper continued on without her. The following year, Cooper signed the podcast’s deal with Spotify.
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