A documentary about podcasting star Alex Cooper has produced at least one explosive allegation. Two-part Cooper docuseries Call Her Alex premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival Sunday ahead of its Hulu premiere Tuesday. And in that docuseries, Cooper publicly discusses for the first time what she says was three years of sexual harassment from her former soccer coach at Boston University, Nancy Feldman. Cooper said that harassment led to her being kicked off the team ahead of her senior year:
Here’s more from that Deadline piece on that, from Jill Goldsmith:
The allegations came at the end part 1 of a new Hulu documentary series Call Her Alex, which just premiered at the Tribeca Festival. In a Q&A after, Cooper said it took her ten years to come forward, in large part because of the documentary, a behind the scenes look at the first live show of her hit podcast Call Her Daddy. The first leg of it was in Boston. Director Ry Russo-Young asked her to walk out on the BU soccer field and reflect on what it meant to her.
“And the minute I stepped back on the field, I felt so small. I felt just felt like I was 18 years old again,” Cooper said at the Q&A. She said she chose to go public to help herself heal and because she fears it may be be an issue at the college. Feldman retired in 2022. But university officials, who Cooper claims brushed off her allegations, are still there, she said.
Variety‘s Aramide Tinubu has more on the specifics of how this is addressed in the docuseries:
Cooper recalls her college experience at Boston University, where she played Division 1 soccer on a full scholarship, only to be sidelined her senior year after she accused her coach, Nancy Feldman, of sexual harassment. Detailing the years-long turmoil, Cooper unpacks the anger, fear and anguish she felt and why the betrayal (especially when the university decided to protect Feldman) enraged her, prompting her to reclaim her voice post-grad.
Feldman helmed the Terriers’ women’s soccer team from their establishment as a varsity team in 1995 until her retirement in 2022. Cooper attended BU on that aforementioned soccer scholarship, playing in 61 games across three seasons and starting six in her junior year, 2015.
Cooper has since turned into a podcasting and media force. She started the Call Her Daddy podcast with then-roomate Sofia Franklyn in 2018, and it was acquired by Barstool Sports one month in. In 2020, Franklyn and Cooper parted ways and Barstool continued Call Her Daddy with just Cooper.
Cooper then left Barstool in 2021 to sign a $60 million deal with Spotify, including creating her own “The Unwell Network” there, and then brought the show and network to SiriusXM in a $125 million deal last summer. She’s also been featured in a number of other sports capacities, including hosting Peacock watch parties for the Summer Olympics last year.
There have been many allegations of sexual harassment and more in the soccer world in recent years, especially around the NWSL in 2021. That’s prompted a lot of examination of coaches’ actions towards their players. The university side of this also has notable elements, as there have been a lot of stories on institutional protection of coaches and other figures. And Cooper’s discussion in the docuseries that the university officials who “brushed off” her concerns are still there definitely makes this worth some further examination.
Boston University didn’t immediately respond to Deadline’s request for comment. We’ll add in a statement here if they put one out.