Podcast icon Alex Cooper breaks her silence after a decade, accusing her former Boston University coach of sexual harassment in Hulu’s Call Her Alex, premiered at the Tribeca Festival
June 9 | New York City:
At the Tribeca Festival premiere of Call Her Alex, podcasting powerhouse Alex Cooper publicly detailed for the first time a deeply personal and traumatic chapter from her past — alleging she endured three years of escalating sexual harassment from her former soccer coach at Boston University, Nancy Feldman.
The revelation, shared at the end of Part 1 of the new Hulu documentary, was met with audible gasps from the audience. The multi-part series follows the meteoric rise of Cooper and her podcast Call Her Daddy, but it takes a sharp, sobering turn when she revisits her time as a star collegiate soccer player. Cooper had earned a full scholarship to BU, but said her dream was derailed by persistent and inappropriate conduct from someone in a position of power.
“It took me ten years to come forward,” Cooper said during the post-screening Q&A. “The moment I stepped back on that field [during filming], I felt small again — like I was 18. And I remembered exactly what it was like to be harassed, to have the thing I loved the most taken away.”
Cooper said the experience of filming the doc, and walking onto the BU field, prompted her to finally speak publicly. She claims Feldman abused her power by fixating on her body, asking intrusive questions about her sex life, and making physical contact — including putting a hand on her thigh. When Cooper allegedly resisted, she said Feldman retaliated, benching her during critical matches.
“It became a game,” Cooper said in the film. “Like, ‘You want to play? Then tell me what you did last night.’”
She said she tried reporting the abuse her senior year, but BU officials dismissed her complaints, allegedly saying: “What do you want? We’re not going to fire her.” They did, however, offer to let her retain her scholarship. Feldman retired in 2022. BU has not responded to requests for comment, and Cooper claims the officials involved remain employed.
“During this documentary, I discovered similar abuse is still happening on campus,” Cooper added, referencing conversations with another alleged victim. “And I thought, if I stay quiet now, I’m complicit.”
What made the experience even more difficult, she said, was that her abuser was a woman.
“The shame is real,” she said. “But what hurts more is the system that made me feel small, silenced, and expendable — even as a scholarship athlete.”
Cooper has hinted at past college trauma on Call Her Daddy, but this marks her first direct, public allegation. In the documentary, she appears visibly shaken, sharing how Feldman’s behavior shifted from inappropriate comments to controlling her playtime, eventually leading to Cooper quitting the team her senior year.
The Hulu series, directed by Ry Russo-Young, premieres June 10. Its first episode includes Cooper revisiting Boston and recounting her experience as the camera follows her behind the scenes of her live podcast tour.
A podcasting trailblazer, Cooper co-created Call Her Daddy in 2018 with Sofia Franklyn under Barstool Sports. By 2021, she had signed an exclusive $60 million deal with Spotify, making Call Her Daddy one of the most downloaded shows globally. She recently moved to SiriusXM in a $120 million deal, continuing to amplify voices, especially those of women.
“Even with all my resources now, I’m still terrified,” she admitted on stage. “Imagine how hard it is for the woman who doesn’t have this platform.”
She closed with a call for systemic change: “This is just the beginning. Our systems are built to deny women justice. I want to help change that — and I’ll start by using my voice.”