CANNES — Let’s not talk about sex, baby.
Alex Cooper explained at the 2023 Cannes Lions Festival why she isn’t “talking about sex so explicitly” on her once-raunchy “Call Her Daddy” podcast these days.
“The pandemic hit and … I think I could feel I wanted to shift the content,” the 28-year-old podcast host explained Tuesday during the “Art of the Interview” panel at Spotify Beach in the South of France.
Cooper — who famously signed a blockbuster $60 million deal with Spotify in 2021 — said she grew tired of solely discussing X-rated topics on the famed show.
“I was talking about sex every single week and listen, I love sex. But there is more to me than just being cute and hot and wanting to have and flirt with boys. There is more to me” she told moderator Dustee Jenkins, Spotify’s chief public affairs officer, and an audience packed with press, marketing execs and enthusiastic fans, collectively referred to as Cooper’s “Daddy Gang.”
“I was a Division 1 athlete, I went to college, I studied film and communications,” Cooper added. “There was more I wanted to discuss.”
The host said she “took a risk” in 2020 by dedicating entire episodes to conversations about mental health, a subject matter that felt relevant as she had recently begun therapy.
“And my mother is a therapist, so I’m very interested in mental health,” she said. “And you guys have to understand when I started this, I was talking about sex so explicitly that to admit that I was in therapy meant that I was in my feels, that was not cool for me to admit.”
Cooper said she was “nervous to take that approach” with her listeners, but was delighted when positive feedback came flooding in.
“Every single person was like, ‘Thank you, thank you for actually showing that it’s not all rainbows and perfect and sex and hotness. You actually can have other layers to you,'” she said onstage
Still, Cooper hasn’t entirely nixed conversations about bedroom behavior while recording her hit podcast.
She memorably spoke about sex toys and favorite positions with pop superstar Christina Aguilera and got Oscar winner Gwyneth Paltrow to compare exes Ben Affleck and Brad Pitt’s skills in the sack.
“I’m really proud of it,” she said of the open dialogue she’s established with her A-list interviewees and the fans who tune in. “Because I still meet women who say, ‘Thank you for teaching me about sex and how to enjoy myself and embrace my sexuality and not feel shamed!”
However, the soon-to-be bride — who, as Pvnew exclusively reported, recently got engaged to Hollywood producer Matt Kaplan — is grateful that her “CHD” acolytes have embraced her evolution as she gets older.
“I think the exciting part is, it’s not a negative to grow up. Ladies, women in the room, it’s a good thing to get old, to mature,” she told the crowd. “I think we’re living in a society where we’re worthless after 30. Like, bitch, I’m in my prime. I’m about to pop off!”
Cooper asserted, “It’s exciting to cultivate an environment in my show that allows women to be excited for their futures rather than stressed out.”
