Sofia Franklyn Breaks Silence: New Memoir 'Daddy Issues' Rewrites 'Call Her Daddy' Story

Sofia Franklyn's 240-page memoir "Daddy Issues" hits shelves Nov. 10, and she says 90% of her feelings about it are excitement. The former "Call Her Daddy" co-host sat down with Variety one week before release, speaking over Zoom from a New York City hotel room. She splits her time between New York and Italy with her husband.

The book arrives with controversy already attached. When Franklyn announced the memoir in February, her agent received a phone call from Matt Kaplan, Alex Cooper's husband and business partner, allegedly screaming on the other end, as Franklyn recounts in the book's foreword. She had previously booked an island getaway to escape backlash. This time, she has no plans to disappear.

"I don't feel a need to," she says. "I'm in such a different place than I was six years ago."

What does the memoir cover?

"Daddy Issues" is split into three parts:

• Her childhood in Salt Lake City, Utah, raised by a single mom who had her at 20 after a one-night stand
• Her post-college move to New York, where she met Cooper, moved in with her and launched "Call Her Daddy"
• Her side of the breakup and of watching the podcast she helped create become a multimillion-dollar empire without her

Franklyn now has Cooper's Unwell Network — a name Franklyn says she coined for merch years earlier — blocked on social media.

"I found myself sobbing at parts that I thought I was so completely healed over," she says of revisiting the material over the past year.

Some details were already public: Cooper was paid more without Franklyn knowing, and Cooper secretly met Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy to negotiate without her. But the memoir adds new claims about the show's behind-the-scenes operations.

Who is Muji Fricke?

The book identifies Muji Fricke, Cooper's childhood friend, as an integral but previously unknown part of "Call Her Daddy." According to Franklyn, Fricke was on the podcast's payroll for a short time before Cooper fired him without warning.

"She's gonna fuck you," Franklyn remembers Muji telling her.

Franklyn credits Fricke with feeding Cooper some of her most memorable bits, including the viral "Gluck Gluck 3000" joke.

"I realize it's one of several jokes – like saying her favorite porn star is Lisa Ann on an IG Q&A – Alex has made that could not have come from the mind of a white, blond college athlete," Franklyn writes.

She continues: "Muji's ideas become central to the show, and especially to Alex's persona: an overtly sexual, clout-chasing WAG wannabe. Off-camera, Alex and I don't even find a lot of Muji's sexual humor funny. But we take his knowledge – the good, the bad and the ugly of sports and dudes – and put it on Alex, a dabbing hardo white girl in a push-up bra…Comedy gold."

His involvement was largely unknown until now. "This is how the show was put together," Franklyn says, "and I don't think people actually know."

Fricke also warned Franklyn early on. "Even at the beginning she would take the lines I wrote for you, or just cut all of yours," he allegedly told her. "Cooper doesn't have friends," she remembers him saying. "I've watched it happen since high school."

Franklyn says she noticed the warnings but defended Cooper at the time. "I was so close with her that I thought, there's a reason that he's saying that, and she's gonna explain it to me."

How did the breakup unfold?

The split dates to 2020, two years into the podcast's run. Cooper and Franklyn sought to renegotiate their three-year contract with Barstool Sports, which owned the show's IP. Portnoy offered $500,000 annual salaries, a larger merchandise cut and full IP ownership after one more year at Barstool. Cooper wanted to accept. Franklyn did not, arguing the terms remained unfavorable.

Cooper then negotiated a separate deal behind Franklyn's back and returned as sole host in May 2020. Cooper secured a reported $60 million Spotify deal in 2021 and a $125 million SiriusXM deal in 2024 — a combined $185 million in contracts in three years. Franklyn launched her own podcast, "Sofia With an F."

The period was rock bottom for Franklyn. She turned to alcohol, drugs and nicotine, moved back in with her mom and experienced intense paranoia.

"I get fucked up to remove myself from the vortex of pain, of betrayal, and loss," she writes. At one point she snapped when her mom took out her phone, paranoid she might be secretly recording her to sell footage online.

With Barstool's power behind Cooper, the public largely painted Franklyn as the villain. She believes that has shifted. "The audience is smarter now, they understand media a bit better," she says, noting TikTok did not exist when "Call Her Daddy" started.

What changed with Alix Earle?

Earlier this year, influencer Alix Earle had a highly publicized falling-out with Cooper after leaving the Unwell Network in 2025. Earle launched her "Hot Mess" podcast under the network in 2023, then accused Cooper of being "manipulative and toxic," claiming she received little production support and learned of her departure through the press. Cooper has disputed Earle's account.

"Alix and I have obviously shown each other public support," Franklyn says. "There was, and I hope this doesn't come out the wrong way, some validation in seeing that."

She adds: "I obviously felt terrible for Alix."

Others have confided in Franklyn about their own experiences with Cooper, but sparingly. "People are very scared," she says.

It is a feeling she knows. "I did spend the first few years very scared, and sometimes I will catch myself being a bit guarded or a bit paranoid, but it's very rare," she says. "Now I'm good. I'm back to normal, back to how I…" she trails off. "Even better than I was before 'Call Her Daddy.'"

Is a screen adaptation next?

Franklyn hopes for a scripted adaptation of the memoir down the line. "Nothing's confirmed," she clarifies. "I'm just hoping to put that out in the universe."

Her biggest lesson from six years of fallout: "Some people you meet don't turn out to be what you thought."

"But you can't live your life keeping yourself protected," she concludes. "If you're doing that, you're not living your life."

With "Daddy Issues" on shelves Nov. 10, Franklyn now controls the narrative of a breakup that once cost her everything — and she says the scripted screen rights conversation is where she expects to take it next.