Alex Cooper Accuses Former College Soccer Coach of Sexual Harassment

The Call Her Daddy host is the focus of the new two-part Hulu docuseries Call Her Alex. Directed by Ry Russo-Young, the film follows Cooper's rise to podcast powerhouse, including her 2024 interview with Vice President Kamala Harris and her journey to the altar with husband Matt Kaplan.

But the most pivotal moment in the series takes viewers back to before she was a household name.

In the doc, which debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival and begins streaming June 10, Cooper claims she was the victim of sexual harassment during her time playing Division I soccer at Boston University. Cooper alleges that her former head coach, Nancy Feldman, made unwanted comments about her body and often tried to get her alone.

"I felt a lot of anger -- anger at my coach, anger at my school, and anger at the system that allowed this to happen," Cooper says in the film. "I don't think anyone could've prepared me for the lasting effects that came from this experience. She turned something that I loved so much into something extremely painful."

Cooper's mother Laurie, who takes part in the doc, recalls her daughter's initial excitement about joining BU under a respected female coach. Feldman has since retired, stepping down as head coach in 2022 after 27 years leading the women's team.

"Boy, that turned," she says in the documentary. "The whole thing turned."

According to Cooper, the alleged harassment began during her sophomore year. "I was determined to make a name for myself on that field, so when my coach started to pay extra attention to me, I figured it was probably because I was playing well," Cooper explains. "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."

"It was confusing because the focus wasn't like, 'You're doing so well. Let's get you on the field. You're going to be a starter.' It was all based in her wanting to know who I was dating, her making comments about my body, and her always wanting to be alone with me," she adds.

Cooper and her former dormmate and teammate, Alex Schlobohm, both allege that Feldman regularly commented on Cooper's appearance during team film reviews.

"We're gonna rewind my tape every five seconds and we're gonna talk about my hair and my body," Cooper recalls, quoting Feldman as saying, "'Look at those legs. Everybody look at Alex in her uniform.'"

She also alleges the coach would "pull me in, just be staring at me, sit next to me on the couch, put her hand on my thigh," describing how "I felt so deeply uncomfortable."

Still, she felt trapped: "I was attending BU on a full-tuition scholarship. If I didn't follow this woman's rules, I was gone."

Cooper also recalled a chilling incident, in which she claims Feldman asked if she'd had sex the night before a tournament, and then benched her after seeing a man drop her off on campus.

"Every time I tried to resist her, she would say, 'There could be consequences,'' Cooper recalls. "And there were."

After Cooper claims her coach began to get even more invasive, with questions digging into her sex life and luring her into her car alone, the 30-year-old internet personality says she began going out of her way to avoid Feldman.

"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," Cooper says. "Literally anything to not be alone with this woman."

Eventually, her parents contacted attorneys, who allegedly confirmed what they were dealing with.

"This is clearly a case of sexual harassment," Laurie says, before recalling a warning from lawyers: "'If I'm gonna be real with you, they will drag this on for years and this will be your life.'"

Cooper and her family still reported Feldman to the BU athletics department, but she claims the school took no real action.

"I want to play my senior year. I want to finish out what I worked my entire life for, but I can't play for this woman," she says she told them.

They said, 'We're not gonna fire her, but you can keep your entire scholarship and that's that. No investigation. Within five minutes, they had entirely dismissed everything I had been through."

Cooper chose not to play her senior year, and Feldman remained in her role and was honored publicly, with December 11 even being declared "Nancy Feldman Day" by the city of Boston.

In a farewell statement during her 2022 retirement, Feldman said, "Hopefully by being challenged, [her players] grew, learned more about themselves, and became stronger, empowered, and prepared for life. That really is the legacy I hope to leave."

No charges were ever filed against Feldman. The docuseries does not include a statement from the school or its former coach. TooFab has reached out to Boston University for comment but not yet heard back.

Cooper launched Call Her Daddy a year later, and has made record-breaking deals in the podcast world ever since. The show, which started out as a commentary about sex and relationships, transitioned to powerful interviews, with the likes of Harris, Jane Goodall, Gwyneth Paltrow and more sitting down to to speak candidly with Cooper.

"When I look back at that time in my life, I was scared, hopeless," she says during a visit back to BU. "I had no resources and no options. And the minute I left that campus, I was so determined to find a way where no one could ever silence me again."

Call Her Alex begins streaming June 10 on Hulu.