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BREAKING11:03 CST · WED, AUG 12
LAUNCH

‘Call Her Daddy’ host Alex Cooper raises money at a $500 million valuation

WTSL, led by Hollywood agent Patrick Whitesell and backed by Silver Lake, invested in Alex Cooper's Unwell at a $500 million valuation.

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Unwell, the media company founded by podcast host Alex Cooper, has received an investment from WTSL — a firm led by Hollywood super agent Patrick Whitesell and backed by private equity firm Silver Lake — that values the company at $500 million, according to Fortune, citing people familiar with the deal.

The investment, per Fortune, is intended to help Unwell expand its video and consumer products businesses. Whitesell, whose client roster has included Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, joins WTSL colleagues Jason Lublin and Josh Pyatt in backing the company. The bet, as described by the sources, is that Cooper and her husband and co-founder Matt Kaplan can scale Unwell into a billion-dollar media business.

Cooper and Kaplan founded Unwell in 2023 to build on the success of Call Her Daddy, one of the most-listened-to podcasts in the US. The show, known for frank discussions about love and sex, draws a large audience of young women and features celebrity guests. Sirius XM Holdings pays Unwell more than $30 million a year to handle distribution and advertising sales for the program, according to Fortune.

Cooper has used the show's reach to move into adjacent businesses. She produced a documentary for Hulu, hosted live coverage from the Paris Olympics for Peacock, and developed new series for YouTube, Fortune reports. Unwell has also launched a drinks line in partnership with Nestlé and started an advertising agency with Google.

The company has not been without controversy. Cooper had a public falling-out with former Call Her Daddy co-host Sofia Franklyn, and later with Alix Earle, who had hosted a show under the Unwell umbrella. Cooper and Kaplan have also faced criticism over workplace culture, though Cooper told Marie Claire last year that she and Kaplan maintain a "very positive and safe" environment for employees.

With the WTSL capital in place, Fortune notes Whitesell and his partners see a foundation to build upon across video and consumer products — though specific milestones or timelines for those expansions were not disclosed.

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