Alix Earle (New Jersey, 25 years old) and Alex Cooper (Pennsylvania, 32 years old) have many things in common. Beyond their similar style, both are influential figures in the digital media in the United States and have legions of fans on social media, where they share content about their daily lives and their projects and professional successes. They were united by Unwell, the media empire that Cooper, host of the famous podcast Call Her Daddy, founded in 2023 together with her husband, producer Matt Kaplan — with whom she is currently expecting her first child —. Earle, whose popularity was skyrocketing at that time, was one of the first influencers — along with Madeline Argy — to sign with the company, with which she launched her own podcast, Hot Mess. “I feel honored to be at a point in my career where I can share knowledge and advice so that a new generation of creators can thrive,” Cooper told Variety after signing in September 2023. But three years later, the advice has turned into a series of barbs thrown at each other amid a confrontation that is now completely public.
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The tension began in February 2025, when Variety reported that Unwell had removed Hot Mess from its programming and fans of both started to suspect there were disagreements between them. “That Alix can’t record her podcast has nothing to do with Unwell,” Cooper denied at the time. Months later, Earle suggested in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that it had not been easy for her to regain the rights to her show, which she relaunched in video format. “Behind the scenes, it was a real mess,” she said. Cooper counterattacked in a TikTok video — where she has 3.2 million followers — accusing her of creating “a fake drama” to distract attention from other matters. “There is no confidentiality agreement, no one is stopping you. Stop hiding and say it yourself. What’s the problem?” she commented.
On September 4, The World of Alix Earle, an eight-episode docuseries about the life of the influencer, premiered on Netflix, and many wondered if it would address her feud with the host of the second most listened to podcast in the United States, with whom veiled indirects have been constant on social media. And it did not disappoint. “From the beginning, I didn’t realize things were going wrong because I was obsessed with her [Cooper]. I thought: ‘She’s my idol. I’m so happy to work with her.’ And then I constantly felt that they were taking advantage of me, using me, mistreating me, and manipulating me,” Earle confesses in the last episode. “What makes me so sad is that I was so happy, I trusted her so much, and the only thing she did was ruin everything,” she adds emotionally, after sharing that she felt pressured to keep working with the company, but that she felt fear and lack of support.
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Later, Earle, who admits she found out about her firing from Unwell through the media, recalls her time on Call Her Daddy — in January 2025 — where she played Truth or Drink with Cooper. “We were recording her podcast and she made us drink beforehand, and then she asked me very sexual questions that I wasn’t comfortable with. But I also answered because I was drunk,” she tells her family, who also play a strong role in the platform’s docu reality. “I imagine myself in her place, taking someone from college, young, impressionable, who admires you, and asking them risqué questions. These are things I didn’t want to be on the internet forever,” she admits.
The final chapter of The World of Alix Earle also includes a moment where the influencer reads aloud the draft of a message she had prepared to send to Cooper, but never sent. “I wanted to write to you directly to say that I don’t like you. I’m not going to fall into your trap of engaging in an online message exchange, and I don’t think you want that either. You are manipulative and toxic. You can say ‘it’s just business’ all you want, but your way of handling business is disgusting. You prioritize money over morals. You took advantage of me when I was young, in a new industry I knew nothing about. You are full of false promises and Unwell was a succession of that,” the influencer asserts. “You’re right. I may be petty, but I have no bad intentions. If I learned anything doing business with you, it’s to never do business with anyone like you again,” she concludes.
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Cooper, already in the final stretch of her pregnancy, has not commented on the matter, at least for now. In her latest Instagram post — where she has almost eight million followers — made the same day as Earle’s documentary premiere, she boasts about her friends in a carousel of vacation photos. “This baby has already won the aunt lottery,” says the accompanying text.
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