Sofia Franklyn
Sofia Franklyn
Sofia Franklyn (born 07/21/1992) is a Blogger, Vlogger and podcaster for Barstool Sports based in New York City.[2] She co-hosts a popular podcast titled Call Her Daddy with Alexandra Cooper.
Franklyn is currently dating Peter Nelson, Executive Vice President of HBO Sports. In April 2020, rumors began circulating of bad blood between the two co-hosts, with Franklyn's boyfriend allegedly at the center.
Personal life
Franklyn is originally from Salt Lake City.[5]
Education
Franklyn attended the University of Utah where she received a degree in Economics.
Career
Franklyn (left) and Cooper (right)
After college, Franklyn initially worked at a finance firm.
Franklyn started a podcast titled Call Her Daddy with her best friend and roommate, Alexandra Cooper, in 2018. The first episode aired on October 3 2018.
Their fanbase calls themselves "Daddy Gang" and refers to the girls as "The Founding Fathers."[22]
On their podcast, they discuss all things pertaining to S.E.X. explicit stories, and give sexual advice/tips. Their show is meant to create an open space to speak frankly and freely about sex. The show is often mislabeled as a female-only space, however the pair often address men directly and give them advice as well. They have millions of listeners worldwide.
In their first episode they talk about things like cuckolding, threesomes, and advises men not to send unsolicited pictures of their genitals out of the blue when in the beginning stages of speaking to a woman.
The idea for the show came when they were attending the South by Southwest in Texas, and they were with a group of friends talking about sex at a bar. Many people in the bar joined in and someone remarked how they'd make a good show.[25]
Call Her Daddy controversy
In late April 2020, rumors began circulating that Franklyn and Cooper had a falling out. The pair were supposed to continue filming podcasts as per their contract, but haven't uploaded since early April 2020, violating their contract with Barstool Sports. [28]
The split was allegedly due to the girls contemplating other deals, potentially worth millions, and wanting to end their contract with Barstool Sports, who owns the trademark to their brand. An insider told the New York Post:
“They’ve completely turned on each other and started arguing over who was the real talent and who did more of the heavy lifting [for the podcast].
[...] I think their audience would be surprised to learn what has been going on behind the scenes with them.
It’s not the loyal, fun-loving friendship they put out there.”
Barstool Sports founder David Portnoy addressed this in an episode of Call Her Daddy titled "Daddy Speaks", including allegations that Cooper and Franklyn, who claim poverty on their podcast, actually pulled in nearly $500,000 in their first year..[27]
According to Portnoy, when he initially signed Cooper and Franklyn with Barstool Sports in 2018, there were disagreements about the intellectual property.
He stated the women wanted to maintain the intellectual property for Call Her Daddy, however, Barstool Sports owned the trademark. It was a three-year contract in which the two women would make around $70,000 a year plus bonuses, Portnoy said.
A few months after the podcast started on, Cooper asked Portnoy for a raise, citing the success of the podcast. She received a raise, and although Franklyn was given a raise as well, Cooper was making more money than her. Portnoy cited the reason being that Cooper does more of the work for Call Her Daddy, including editing.
They bumped heads over the intellectual property and started negotiations with Barstool, with the hosts seeking to take back the intellectual property of the show and gain other benefits including a million dollar guarantee for each. According to Portnoy, Barstool Sports wasn’t offered anything in return, so he called off negotiations.
He stated “That is when they started the trail, and the trail is exactly what everybody thought it was.
They were shopping Call Her Daddy around, looking to go somewhere else, break their contract with us."
He described Barstool's stance as: "If you guys take Call Her Daddy and go somewhere else, we’re going to sue the f**k out of you. Like you’re under a three-year contract.”
He tried to negotiate with the two hosts but they wouldn’t, and they allegedly didn’t talk to him for months.
He said the two stopped coming into the office, and they finally stopped doing the podcast.
He said, “I cut them a deal that was so outrageously good in their favor, that I thought we’d get something done.”
He said the 50/50 deal included $500,000 guarantee for each host, extra merchandise revenue and a contract shortened by six months.
According to Portnoy, they had around 18 months left on their three-year contract with Barstool Sports. He said he would also give them the intellectual property for Call Her Daddy.
He also spoke of Franklyn and Peter Nelson's relationship on the podcast, saying that Nelson was one of the main reasons the situation escalated. Portnoy said, “I was starting to hear whispers, and she (Cooper) confirmed it, and this is a big part of the story, her new boyfriend… Peter Nelson, HBO executive, probably greenlit a hitpiece on me not too long ago, [came] into the mix not too long ago. He was the one who brought in all these lawyers.”
He continued, “He was openly shopping Call Her Daddy. He was acting almost as a manager, and he got a deal with Wondery. They were going to call the podcast 'The Fathers'.”
He finally spoke with Cooper alone, who told him that they were never going to get a deal done because Franklyn was refusing. Cooper said to Portnoy that she wanted sign the new contract with Barstool Sports.”
He said, “Once we got ready to do a deal with [Cooper], I believe the Wondery deal clearly fell through because there was no longer Call Her Daddy, I think [Franklyn] wanted to come back maybe. But it was too late. The fifty-fifty deal, [Cooper] didn't want to do it anymore.”
“We offered them mid-to-high six-figure salaries and a way for them to get the intellectual property,” Portnoy said. “We offered them substantial raises just to get them to honor their existing contract.”
Franklyn posted a series of videos to her Instagram stories on May 19, 2020, addressing the matter. She accused Cooper of 'stabbing her in the back' while they were renegotiating their contract with Barstool Sports. Franklyn also claimed they looked for outside deals to benefit their fans. “I found out that Alex had gone behind my back and done something. And I found out it wasn’t the first time. And that’s why we’re here. I trusted Alex. I feel betrayed,” Franklyn said in the video.
Franklyn said the pair regrets how they went about their business dealings, but she claims they were eager to return to Barstool. That’s why they took a meeting with Portnoy, who then extended the sweetheart deal. “This is where the story gets extremely f–ked up,” she claimed, adding that Cooper went behind her back but not offering any details.
Cooper posted a video to YouTube on May 22, 2020, titled "The Truth about Call Her Daddy" to announce that she signed a solo deal with Barstool Sports to resume filming Call Her Daddy
and to tell her side of the split.
Cooper said Franklyn allowed her boyfriend Peter Nelson, and his “posse” of agents and lawyers to interfere in their business and come between them. She said Peter Nelson kept saying that they made “way below” the industry standard. Cooper also alleges that Nelson then took the lead, drafting a list of demands the women sought from Barstool, which included a guarantee of $1 million each, a bigger piece of their merchandise revenue and giving them the intellectual property rights.[35]
Cooper believes Franklyn wanted to sabotage everything and “force [her] into starting a new show.”
She suddenly had more representatives, signed with William Morris Endeavor, and had an attorney who kept moving the goal posts farther away from Portnoy’s original offer.
“Alex, I hate this deal.
What it comes down to is: You don’t want to leave, and I don’t want to stay,” Cooper recalled Franklyn saying.
“Sofia said, ‘The IP is the most important thing, but it’s not as important to me as it is to you, Alex.
I get you think the IP is the end-all-be-all — but I feel differently about that’.
.
.
We agreed that we valued the brand in a very different way.”
Franklyn said in a two hour phone call on May 6th, 2020.
Cooper admitted to landing a raise independently of Franklyn in the first year because she simply did more work, including editing the podcast and handling the marketing and social media: “I chose not to share this raise with Sofia, and I chose to do that because Sofia made me feel uncomfortable that I did more work.”
She also announced that going forward, she will be doing the podcast on her own as part of her new contract with Barstool Sports.On Instagram, Portnoy confirmed Cooper’s news, saying: “It’s all now back to Alex Cooper and Peter Nelson go f - - k yourself, you f - - k.”[36][38][39]
Arrest
Franklyn's mugshot from her 2011 arrest
On June 10 2011, Franklyn was arrested in Salt Lake City, Utah, at 20 years old for consumption of alcohol by a minor. [4]