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Alex Cooper dropped a bomb on the first episode of her Hulu docuseries.
In case you didn’t hear, the Call Her Daddy podcast host has a new two part docuseries coming out on Disney+ where she’s telling her entire story. Fans were immediately excited to delve into the world of their favorite podcaster!But nothing could prepare them for just how deep things will get…
On Sunday, the Tribeca Film Festival premiered the first episode of Call Her Alex, and the 30-year-old’s heartbreaking confession left everyone speechless.
If you don’t know much about Alex, you probably don’t know that before fame she went to Boston University on a soccer scholarship. Getting to play Division 1 in her favorite sport while pursuing a higher education? It sounds like a dream come true! But sadly, it turned out to be a nightmare…
Per The Hollywood Reporter, viewers listened to Alex describe the inappropriate treatment she faced from the school’s soccer coach, Nancy Feldman. We aren’t talking tough coaching here — she’s accusing the woman of sexual harassment. The influencer said:
“My sophomore year, everything really shifted. I started to notice her really starting to fixate on me way more than any other teammate of mine. And it was confusing because the focus wasn’t like, ‘You’re doing so well, let’s get you on the field, you’re gonna be a starter.’ It was all based on [Feldman] wanting to know who I was dating, her making comments about my body, and her always wanting to be alone with me.”
Ugh. Creepy…
It didn’t stop there, though. Alex got emotional as she alleged that if she tried to avoid her coach, she would suffer consequences — like being benched during games:
“It was this psychotic game of, ‘You wanna play? Tell me about your sex life, I have to drive you to your night class, get in the car with me alone.’ I started trying to spend as little time as possible with her, taking different routes to practice where I knew I wouldn’t run into her. During meetings, I would try to sit as far away from her as possible, literally anything to not be alone with this woman.”
So sad. We can’t stand to hear about this kind of abuse of power — whether it’s by men or women.
Related: Jared Leto Denies Sexual Misconduct Allegations As More Women Accuse Him
The Unwell Hydration founder claims she reported the behavior to university officials, but her concerns were “dismissed”. Ultimately, she ended up being kicked off the team during her senior year back in 2017, presumably due to not abiding by what her coach wanted. Sickening.
At the time of writing this, BU has yet to respond to her allegations, but this isn’t the first time she’s suggested something like this went down.
For years, fans have heard about Alex alluding to something traumatic happening to her in college, but this is the first time she’s spoken out about it. After the premiere there was a Q&A, where a fan asked why she chose now to open up about it. The podcast star admitted she was still “f**king scared” but knew it was the right time to make this decision:
“I think a lot of this process almost made me realize, if I have the finances to pay for a lawyer and I have the resources to do all these things, how is another woman going to feel comfortable to come forward? I’m still f**king scared up here, you know. And I was nobody when I was in college. I did come forward. I was denied, essentially. And so the story is frustrating, because I want to tell women come forward … But I did, and I wasn’t believed, and then it took me a decade.”
In fact, she said this is just the “beginning” of everything she wants to say:
“[This situation has] really opened my eyes to how difficult the system is, and it’s so built against us as women, and we have to fight so f**king hard to have our voices heard, and we are denied, or we’re questioned, or you feel shame, and that started to really get in my head of, how am I about to not put this in the documentary?… I realized, holy s**t, I have so much more work to do, and I’m going to use my platform to hopefully inspire other people to come forward and tell their stories, because conversation is the only way that we’re going to actually have change and we’re going to make change.”
Such a brave thing to do. We can’t imagine how hard of a decision this was, but props to Alex for fighting the good fight.
The entire Call Her Alex docuseries hits Hulu and Disney+ on Tuesday, June 10. Will U be tuning in?
If you or someone you know has experienced sexual violence and would like to learn more about resources, consider checking out https://www.rainn.org/resources.
[Image via Call Her Daddy/YouTube/Alex Cooper/TikTok]
