Alex Cooper on Call Her Daddy’s Evolution: ‘There Is More to Me Than Just Being Cute and Hot’

In case you haven’t noticed, Call Her Daddy’s Alex Cooper isn’t really talking about sex anymore. Well, she is, but lately, she’s talking about it less often, in a more modest way, and with the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow, Hailey Bieber, and John Mayer. Because that, folks, is what happens when you start signing 60 million dollar deals.

On Tuesday, the host appeared as a guest on the “Art of the Interview” panel at the 2023 Cannes Lions Festival in the South of France and explained to the crowd—reportedly filled with emphatic members of her “daddy gang”—why she pivoted from how to eat pussy to other equally important things like minding one’s mental health. “I was talking about sex every single week and listen, I love sex,” Cooper explained to the panel’s moderator and Spotify’s chief public affairs officer, Dustee Jenkins. “But there is more to me than just being cute and hot and wanting to have and flirt with boys. There is more to me.”

“I was a Division 1 athlete, I went to college, I studied film and communications,” she tacked on for emphasis. “There was more I wanted to discuss.”

Recently, Cooper has delved into one of the most remarkable breakups in reality television show history with Vanderpump Rules’ Ariana Madix, how to manage one’s finances with “Zillennial Finance Expert” Haley Sacks, and leaving toxic relationships with Pretty Little Liars’ Shay Mitchell, which for the record, sound infinitely more interesting than recitations on Division 1 athletics, college, or film and communications from a 28-year-old.

Frankly, I get what Cooper is saying, but there are plenty of successful podcasts (hello, Inner Hoe Uprising, Authentic Sex, etc., etc.) that solely discuss sex because it’s a rich, complex subject. Sure, personal hookups for podcast fodder aren’t always a career maker—however, that’s certainly what helped her secure a multimillion-dollar Spotify deal in the first place.

Personally, I happen to think of sex as an intersectional, inexhaustible, perfectly intellectual topic that can include and transcend blow job guides—and doesn’t need to be something she feels compelled to justify. But apparently, opting to discuss anything but ghosting and something called the Gluck Gluck 9000 was a “a risk” for Cooper, and during the pandemic, she felt compelled to “shift the content” to include anxiety, borderline personality disorder, and the like as she’d recently started therapy.

“And my mother is a therapist, so I’m very interested in mental health,” Cooper said. “And you guys have to understand when I started this, I was talking about sex so explicitly that to admit that I was in therapy meant that I was in my feels, that was not cool for me to admit.”

Fortunately for “Father Cooper,” listeners’ feedback has been positive: “Every single person was like, ‘Thank you, thank you for actually showing that it’s not all rainbows and perfect and sex and hotness. You actually can have other layers to you.’”

“I’m really proud of it,” Cooper said of her evolving relationship with her listeners. “Because I still meet women who say, ‘Thank you for teaching me about sex and how to enjoy myself and embrace my sexuality and not feel shamed!’”

I’m happy for everyone who’s happy with Cooper’s content shift! But I wish she’d take her own advice and not feel one ounce of shame for building a brand whose basis is a lot of people’s favorite topic.