Alex Cooper’s podcast empire is being accused of fostering a toxic work environment where her husband, Matt Kaplan, allegedly berates their employees.
Cooper’s Unwell Network has faced employee turnover amid a rumored ongoing conflict between Kaplan, the co-chief executive officer, and staff members, company insiders told Bloomberg in a bombshell report published Monday. In the past year, the company’s head of brand marketing, head of the network and chief growth officer have all left their roles.
Cooper and Kaplan, a film and TV producer, co-founded their company Trending Media in 2023. Trending is the parent company for the Unwell Network, which includes Cooper’s lifestyle podcasts and Kaplan’s production company, ACE Entertainment.
While Cooper focuses on her extremely popular Call Her Daddy podcast and other creative projects, Kaplan is said to be running the network’s day-to-day operations, where he has allegedly “earned a reputation for frequently yelling at staff members” and threatening to blacklist them from other jobs according to Bloomberg.
Some employees have reportedly threatened to quit the network in the middle of film sets and live tours due to his behavior.
According to Bloomberg, one person claimed that Kaplan screamed at workers on the set of Cooper’s YouTube show Unwell Winter Games and caused a crew member to burst into tears.
In Call Her Alex, a 2025 Hulu documentary following Cooper’s first live tour, a production manager was seen threatening to quit, but Kaplan blamed the issue on the demanding work schedule.
However, a source told Bloomberg that the manager broke down because of Kaplan yelling and swearing at staff.
Representatives for Kaplan and Cooper did not return The Independent’s requests for comment. The couple has been together since 2020, and tied the knot in Mexico in April 2024.
Another rift in Unwell Network has raised eyebrows lately after Cooper called out her feud with Alix Earle, host of the Hot Mess podcast. Cooper’s company parted ways with Earle, one of Unwell’s first partnerships, in 2025 and offered little explanation for the split.
However, the tension came to a head last week when Cooper shared a TikTok video saying she was tired of Earle spreading “fake drama.”
“I know what happened and so do you,” Cooper said in the video. “So talk. Unless the fake narrative that you’re creating happens to be way more interesting than the truth. I have nothing to hide when it comes to you and me.”
Earle responded to the video, “Okay on it!!”
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