Barstool founder Dave Portnoy said former "Call Her Daddy" co-hosts Alex Cooper and Sofia Franlyn planned to falsely claim they were sexually harassed at the company in order to get out of their contracts. "Call Her Daddy" quickly emerged as a wildly popular podcast when it was launched by Barstool in 2018.Cooper and Franklyn, who were also roommates, lured young female audiences with first-hand tales of their sexual experiences and dating lives until contract negotiations and a feud between the co-hosts caused a public breakup in 2020. In Portnoy’s new book, "Cancel Me If You Can," he wrote that Cooper was happy with an offer that would allow the co-hosts to keep their intellectual property, but Franklyn wanted to leave Barstool altogether. "’Okay,’ I said.
‘You guys realize I’ll sue you if you take the podcast to another network before your contract is out, right?’ Alex claimed to me that they had a plan to say they were both sexually harassed at Barstool," Portnoy wrote.DAVE PORTNOY LEFT 'STUNNED' BY NYC SOCIALIST VICTORIES, SAYS THE AMERICAN DREAM IS UNDER SIEGEAlex Cooper, Dave Portnoy and Sofia Franlyn.(Mark Von Holden/WWD | Theo Wargo/Getty Images North America)"That was it," he continued.
"That was their game plan to get out of their contractual obligation to Barstool Sports in the event that I did not relinquish their IP to them and wish them well on their merry way as they jumped ship to a rival podcast network."Portnoy, who has been accused of misogyny throughout his career, added that he has "never been accused of inappropriate workplace conduct.""But had they decided to go that route, even though it was patently untrue, it would have been a tough fight for us to win in the court of public opinion.Nobody would have believed my side of the story," Portnoy wrote.
"I realize that this is a heavy accusation I just made: how Call Her Daddy was allegedly planning to break their contract with us by lying about sexual harassment at Barstool."D...