Alex Cooper’s podcast empire is facing claims that her husband and co-CEO berated staffers and threatened their careers — with one veteran crew member reduced to tears.
Cooper, host of the hit “Call Her Daddy” podcast, and her husband, Hollywood exec Matt Kaplan, have reportedly been slammed with staff turnover and internal turmoil at their Unwell media company.
The hubby has developed a reputation inside the company for yelling at employees as he oversees day-to-day operations, people familiar with the brand told Bloomberg News.
The report described the behavior as part of a broader pattern as the company expanded after Cooper and Kaplan co-founded their umbrella company Trending in 2023.
“Call Her Daddy” shot to national prominence when Cooper hosted then-Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in fall 2024, though some fans said the episode felt like “propaganda.”
The tensions reportedly boiled over most recently during filming of the YouTube series “Unwell Winter Games,” which debuted last month.
During production, Kaplan allegedly berated staffers and threatened they would never work in Hollywood again if they messed up.
At one point on set, a veteran crew member broke down in tears after being castigated, people familiar with the incident told Bloomberg. The confrontation prompted formal complaints through on-set channels.
The situation grew so tense that crew members threatened to walk off film sets and live tours, telling leadership they would quit if Kaplan did not behave better, sources told the outlet.
The behind-the-scenes dysfunction has bled into the company’s audience-facing podcasting sector, according to Bloomberg.
Recently, tensions have also spilled into a public feud with influencer Alix Earle, a breakout TikTok star who joined Unwell in 2023 before the network abruptly dropped her “Hot Mess” podcast last year.
The split — never fully explained to the public — has resurfaced in recent weeks, with Cooper accusing Earle of stirring “fake drama.”
Unwell has also been hit by a steady churn of both staff and talent, with insiders describing a “revolving door” inside the company.
Current and former employees told the Status newsletter that operations often felt “chaotic” and “disorganized,” as the fast-growing media venture struggled to manage creators and scale its business.
Unwell has also struggled to build hits beyond its flagship show, with several new podcasts failing to gain traction.
In 2025, the company launched three original programs tied to a deal with SiriusXM, but all of them were canceled less than a year later — illustrating the extent to which the network has struggled to replicate the success of “Call Her Daddy.”
The Post has sought comment from Cooper, Kaplan and Unwell.
Cooper, 31, has emerged as one of the most prominent figures in the booming creator economy, turning “Call Her Daddy” from a podcast she started with her roommate in 2018 into a multimillion-dollar franchise and a launchpad for a broader, Gen Z-focused media business.
Before co-running her company with his wife, Kaplan amassed credits as a Hollywood producer behind youth-driven hits like the “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” franchise.
She and her husband’s Trending was meant to turn her massive following into a full-scale entertainment pipeline spanning podcasts, television, film and live events.
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