Alex Cooper, Sofia Franklyn planned to break Barstool contract with ‘fake’ sexual harassment claims: Dave Portnoy

Dave Portnoy alleged that Alex Cooper and Sofia Franklyn planned to break their Barstool contracts with “fake” sexual harassment claims.

In his newly released memoir, “Cancel Me If You Can,” the Barstool Sports founder alleged the women had a change of heart about their pay and contracts after meeting with YouTube star Logan Paul.

“There was no indication that Alex and Sofia were unhappy with their situation, until they met Logan Paul,” Portnoy claimed in his book, per the Daily Mail.

“In April 2019, Alex and Sofia flew to Los Angeles to appear on Logan Paul’s podcast, and he planted some rather poisonous seeds in their minds. They got into a discussion about their current contracts and pay, and Logan was unimpressed,” the businessman penned.

Portnoy, 49, claimed that both Cooper and Franklyn — who co-hosted the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, which was owned and distributed by Barstool Sports from 2018 to 2021 — were beginning to “show their growing dissatisfaction with being tied” to his company.

“First, they stopped coming into the office. Near the end of 2019 was really when the major trouble started brewing,” Portnoy alleged in his memoir.

“Call Her Daddy had hired a lawyer and wanted to have a meeting with us. The lawyer brought a list of demands so preposterous that I couldn’t even make it through the meeting,” he added.

The media personality claimed the women “wanted a million dollars a year, the right to sell their own ads, ownership over the intellectual property of Call Her Daddy, and 90 percent of their merch sales.”

Additionally, Portnoy claimed Cooper, 31, and Franklyn, 33, no longer wanted to be qualified as employees of Barstool Sports.

To try to force their contract demands, Portnoy alleged that the women “simply stopped putting out their podcast.”

Portnoy said he met with them and proposed “the most generous offer in Barstool history” that would have made both Cooper and Franklyn instant millionaires.

Later, Portnoy claimed he got a phone call from Cooper asking if she could meet with the Barstool boss again — without Franklyn.

“‘I love the deal you proposed, and I want to take it. But Sofia is never going to take it,’” Portnoy claimed Cooper told him in his memoir.

”’Okay,’ I said. ‘You guys realize I’ll sue you if you take the podcast to another network before your contract is out, right?’ Alex claimed to me that they had a plan to say they were both sexually harassed at Barstool,” he alleged.

“That was it. That was their game plan to get out of their contractual obligation to Barstool Sports in the event that I did not relinquish their IP to them and wish them well on their merry way as they jumped ship to a rival podcast network.”

Portnoy wrote in his book that though his company had been attacked “for making sexist jokes,” they had “never been accused of inappropriate workplace conduct.”

“But had they decided to go that route, even though it was patently untrue, it would have been a tough fight for us to win in the court of public opinion. Nobody would have believed my side of the story,” he penned.

“I realize that this is a heavy accusation I just made: how Call Her Daddy was allegedly planning to break their contract with us by lying about sexual harassment at Barstool.”

Portnoy doubled down on his claims, claiming to the Wall Street Journal that the women “hated each other.”

Page Six has reached out to reps for Paul, Cooper and Franklyn but did not immediately hear back.

Franklyn left the “Call Her Daddy” podcast in 2020, claiming that “contract negotiations fell apart.”

She went on to create her own podcast titled “Sofia with an F.” Franklyn will address her fallout with Cooper in her forthcoming memoir, “Daddy Issues.”

Cooper later signed a three-year contract with Spotify for $60 million in 2021 and inked a deal estimated at over $100 million in 2024.

In June 2021, Cooper signed a $60 million deal to exclusively present the podcast on Spotify while Barstool continued to handle the show’s merchandising. 

Three years later, the influencer signed a $125 million deal with Sirius XM to replace Spotify as her distribution and advertising partner.

“Cancel Me If You Can” is now available for purchase.

If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-330-0226.