Call Her Daddy podcast star Alex Cooper has accused her former college soccer coach, Nancy Feldman, of sexual harassment.
Cooper, 30, attended Boston University from 2013 to 2017, where she played on the school’s Division One women’s soccer team for three seasons. She didn’t play soccer her senior year.
In the new two-part Hulu docuseries, titled Call Her Alex, which debuted Sunday at the Tribeca Film Festival, Cooper made an emotional return to her alma mater for the first time.
Walking out on the field in the documentary, the podcaster teared up as she remembered: “When I look back at that time in my life, I was scared, hopeless,” according to USA Today.
“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,” she said in the documentary. “I felt a lot of anger — anger at my coach, anger at my school, and anger at the system that allowed this to happen.
“I don’t think anyone could’ve prepared me for the lasting effects that came from this experience,” Cooper said, adding of Feldman: “She turned something that I loved so much into something extremely painful.”
She explained that at the time, she was “determined to make a name for myself in that field.”
“So when my coach started to pay extra attention to me, I figured it was probably because I was playing well,” she shared.
“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,” Cooper continued. “And 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.”
Cooper claimed Feldman would “rewind my tape every five seconds” and comment on “my hair and body,” saying: “‘Look at those legs. Everybody look at Alex in her uniform.’”
She further alleged that during pre-season, Feldman would “pull me in, just be staring at me, sit next to me on the couch, put her hand on my thigh.”
“I felt so deeply uncomfortable,” Cooper said, sharing that she felt forced to comply because she was attending the university on a full-tuition scholarship. “If I didn’t follow this woman’s rules, I was gone,” Cooper said.
Feldman was hired as Boston University’s first women’s soccer coach in 1995. During her time there, she “transformed the program from club-level to a team that is consistently competing against the nation’s top squads,” according to BU’s website. She retired from her position in 2022.
The Independent has contacted Feldman and Boston University for comment.
Call Her Alex follows the podcaster as she prepares for her first live tour. It traces “Cooper’s evolution from a self-conscious kid growing up in Pennsylvania to the voice behind Call Her Daddy, the global hit podcast that redefined the conversation for women everywhere,” a logline stated.
After the screening, Cooper and the documentary’s director, Ry Russo-Young, took the stage for a special Q&A.
Addressing why she came forward with the allegations now, Cooper said: “Speaking about it has almost allowed me to get one step closer to reclaiming this thing that has felt like a dark cloud over my life.”
Cooper noted that while “it doesn’t mean I’m not scared of retaliation or judgment or that people are going to pick this apart,” she still has “so much more work to do.
“I’m going to use my platform to hopefully inspire other people to come forward and tell their stories, because conversation is the only way that we’re going to actually have change and we’re going to make change,” she said.
Call Her Alex premieres Tuesday on Hulu.
