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Podcaster Alex Cooper alleges she was sexually harassed by soccer coach while at Boston University
“It was this psychotic game of, ‘You want to play, tell me about your sex life.’”
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Alex Cooper, the influential “Call Her Daddy” podcaster and former Boston University soccer player, alleged that she was sexually harassed by ex-coach Nancy Feldman and that those at the school brushed her off when she made them aware.
Cooper tells the story in the upcoming Hulu documentary “Call Her Alex,” which premiered Sunday at the Tribeca Festival in New York and will be available for streaming beginning Tuesday.
Deadline reported that Cooper said in a Q&A afterward that she came forward because, in part, abuse is “still happening” at BU.
“During the filming of this documentary, I found out that the harassment and abuse of power is still happening on the campus of Boston University, and I spoke to one of the victims, and hearing her story was horrific, and I knew in that moment if I don’t speak about this, it’s going to continue happening,” Cooper said, according to Deadline.
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Boston University’s athletics department did not respond to messages from the Globe. Attempts to reach Feldman, who was living in West Roxbury when she retired from BU in 2022, were unsuccessful.
The documentary, directed by Ry Russo-Young, did not include a statement from the school or its former coach, according to USA Today.
Cooper, from Newtown, Pa., has become arguably the world’s most successful female podcaster. Her “Call Her Daddy” was, in 2024, the second-most popular podcast on Spotify behind “The Joe Rogan Experience.”
She signed a three-year, $60 million contract with Spotify in 2021, the richest exclusive deal the company had ever handed to a woman-led show.
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Last August, she landed a three-year, $125 million deal with SiriusXM, a move Forbes compared to the company signing Howard Stern away from terrestrial radio in 2006.
Cooper’s list of podcast guests includes Vice President Kamala Harris, whose sit-down with Cooper a month before the 2024 election helped bolster Cooper’s reputation as “Gen Z’s Barbara Walters.”
Cooper committed to Boston University while in 10th grade at The Pennington School in New Jersey, where she played attacking central midfielder. At BU, she played in 49 games from 2013-15, recording one goal and one assist with 32 shots (18 on goal). She started six games as a junior in 2015, scoring her only collegiate goal on Nov. 14 against St. John’s.
In the documentary, Deadline reported, Cooper said she was a sophomore when Feldman began making comments and asking questions about her body and romantic life, and retaliated by benching her when she would not share details.
“It was this psychotic game of, ‘You want to play, tell me about your sex life,’ ” Cooper said in the documentary, according to Deadline.
Cooper said that Feldman would comment on her legs, put her hand on Cooper’s thigh, and “always want[ed] to be alone with me.” She said Feldman began to “fixate” on her, “way more than any other teammate of mine.”
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In the documentary, USA Today reported, Cooper said she and her mother, Laurie Cooper, met with BU’s “dean of athletics” and detailed three years of harassment. Cooper said BU wouldn’t look at the notes her mother took about Feldman’s harassment, and refused to fire the coach, but told Cooper she could stay on scholarship.
“Within five minutes, they had entirely dismissed everything I had been through,” Cooper said in the documentary, according to USA Today.
Drew Marrochello has been BU’s athletic director since 2014. A call to his office redirected to the BU’s school-wide voicemail system.
In 27 years at BU, Feldman took the Terriers “from club-level to a team that is consistently competing against the nation’s top squads,” according to a bio on the school’s website. Her teams made 14 NCAA Tournament appearances, and won nine America East championships and four Patriot League titles.
Feldman is a 1979 graduate of Needham High School, where she played track and softball and was soccer captain. She was a Globe All-Scholastic soccer selection in 1978. She walked on at UMass, and shortly after graduating in 1983 started her coaching career at Danvers High. She later coached at Plymouth State, before taking the BU job in 1995.
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A LinkedIn profile for Feldman says that since retiring, she has been a board member of United Soccer Coaches since January 2024. A spokesperson for United Soccer Coaches said Feldman resigned from the board last fall, and declined to comment further.
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