Sofia Franklyn wants to make one thing abundantly clear: she did not write a tell-all. While she knows everyone is salivating for the juicy details of the breakup with her former Call Her Daddy co-host, Alex Cooper , her book is so much more than that. The Sofia with an F host spent the past year writing Daddy Issues , a tender memoir about her traumatic past and the tough lessons she had to learn along the way to achieving a better future. Franklyn worked as a client service associate at Morgan Stanley before a chance encounter with Cooper led to the launch of their raunchy sex podcast that quickly became one of the most listened-to in the country. They were on top of the world, until they weren’t. When the pair severed ties, it was more than just a work relationship that ended, it was also the death knell of their friendship. For years, fans speculated about what went awry, and now the former co-host is finally ready to tell her side of the story.
A fter 30 years on daytime television, Maury Povich knows a thing or two about moderating a messy public dispute. So, t he morning before the highly anticipated memoir dropped, Franklyn spoke with the talk show host about absent fathers, silver screen aspirations, and why she’s no longer interested in being a girlboss.
MONDAY 11 AM NOVEMBER 10, 2026 NEW YORK CITY
SOFIA FRANKLYN: Hi. How inappropriate, disrespectful, and rude of me to be this late. I apologize.
MAURY POVICH: That’s okay. Do you still live in New York?
FRANKLYN: I still live in New York. My husband lives in Europe, so that’s kind of difficult. But we have a plan.
POVICH: That’s okay. My wife and I lived in separate cities for the first couple of years.
POVICH: Yes. It was kind of good that way.
FRANKLYN: There is something about it that is actually really great. We see each other fairly frequently, but we’re newly married, and I feel like I’m still getting used to living with him.
POVICH: So Sofia, you write this memoir called Daddy Issues .
POVICH: When somebody uses the word daddy in a title of a podcast or a memoir, I usually get a finder’s fee.
FRANKLYN: What does that mean? I just want to hear it in your words.
FRANKLYN: I mean, the word daddy means a lot of things, and that’s kind of why it’s such a powerful word, right? There’s the sexual dom play on it. There is no female equivalent to that. Saying mommy doesn’t do the same.
POVICH: Mommy’s kind of soft next to daddy, is that it?
FRANKLYN: I would rather be called daddy than mommy.
FRANKLYN: Well, because daddy is a signal of boss. Mommy’s like, “Come suck on a teet.”
FRANKLYN: Not right now at this very moment. I’m actually wanting to retire.
POVICH: You want to retire in your mid-30s? [Laughs]
FRANKLYN: I’ve been doing this book press tour and I’m tired. I want to retire right now, but I will change my mind next week.
POVICH: So here’s the thing, Sofia. Usually when somebody writes a memoir, people wait until they retire for good. You’re doing it in your mid-30s. How come?
FRANKLYN: So, I’d been to several meetings with several agents, most of which said the same thing, right? They would tell me, “You’re a bit young to be writing a memoir. You haven’t lived enough life.” And if you go buy the book, I’ve lived enough life to justify a memoir.
POVICH: Well, it sounds like in about 10 or 15 years, you can write another memoir.
FRANKLYN: Exactly. I’ve lived things that people won’t live by the time they’re 34.
POVICH: What you’re alluding to is that the life you lived with your ex-co-host for two or three years is like a lifetime.
FRANKLYN: We capitalized on this tell-all piece and we capitalized on the moment, but my book is very much a memoir. I had already lived an incredibly colorful, full life before Call Her Daddy .
POVICH: I know, but everybody knows you because of the success of that particular podcast, right?
FRANKLYN: Yeah, I was working at Morgan Stanley before that
POVICH: Well, nobody knew who you were outside of Morgan Stanley, did they?
FRANKLYN: No, absolutely not. I don’t think they knew who I was at Morgan Stanley. [Laughs]
POVICH: That sums it up. I mean, you lived a very different kind of a life before you and Alex Cooper ever got together. In fact, is it still twice you’ve only met your birth father?
FRANKLYN: This is how I tried to end the book. I met him once about eighth grade, and then I met him again in high school.
POVICH: He was from Spain and therefore he didn’t speak English.
FRANKLYN: Not very well. I can understand Spanish, but my mom was very much so needing to be the mediator. However, I married a guy who lives in Europe and I desperately wanted my European citizenship. So I actually reached out to him during the book writing process to ask if he would help me get my Spanish citizenship.
FRANKLYN: Not yet. I am waiting to hear what the Spanish consulate in Los Angeles has to say about two years later. I had to go to take a DNA test in Ibiza to prove he was my father.
POVICH: In the book, you talk about how awkward it was that second meeting with your birth father.
FRANKLYN: I mean, both were awkward because I didn’t know what to expect. I received conflicting information from my mom growing up. “You don’t have a dad, but you are completely fine and you don’t need one.” But then there was this big emphasis later on, “Do you want to meet?” And I thought maybe it would be the type of thing where I met him and I would say, “Daddy,” and run into his arms.
POVICH: You wanted a movie ending finish there.
POVICH: How would you consider your relationship with your stepdad? Because he had some issues himself.
FRANKLYN: He had some issues, but we have an incredible relationship. I got married in August, he walked me down the aisle. Obviously, it was very turbulent growing up.
POVICH: Yeah, because he had some serious drug issues.
FRANKLYN: He’s what I would refer to as California sober, which means you’re smoking weed and having alcohol sometimes.
POVICH: Oh, I see. He’s not into the heavy stuff anymore.
FRANKLYN: No, he will do more medicinal things like psilocybin in a very particular setting, but the methamphetamine, the cocaine, no.
POVICH: So I read the interview that you did with The New York Times . Were you happy with it?
FRANKLYN: I love The New York Times , and I was taught very early on you don’t make enemies of the press, but I didn’t like the positioning, I didn’t like that the title referred to my book as a tell-all because I know it’s so much more than that. And I don’t think life is a zero-sum game, where one person has to be a loser and a winner in every situation.
POVICH: You now have your own podcast, right? Sofia with an F ? And Alex still has C all Her Daddy ?
POVICH: Do you look at her with envy at all because she’s got a lot of money.
FRANKLYN: She has a lot of money. [Laughs] I can’t say exactly how much, but genuinely, I do not envy her. I did in the first few years after the breakup, but I don’t anymore, and I haven’t for a while.
FRANKLYN: I stopped trying to live my life in relation to her, and I’ve found success of my own. I mean, what’s your definition of success? Yeah, having a lot of money in the bank, but I want to do it in a way that feels good and feels right to me.
POVICH: So your definition of success is feeling good?
FRANKLYN: Yeah. Obviously, I love money. Who doesn’t? But not to the point where I would ever want it to determine creative projects I work on or how I do business.
POVICH: My father always told me that money makes you less nervous. Don’t you think?
FRANKLYN: I’ve been broke before, and that’s an incredibly stressful place to be. I would love to ask your father at what dollar amount the nervousness goes away.
POVICH: Well, I’ll tell you the other thing he told me.
POVICH: He said, “Money gives you a sixth sense in order to enjoy the other five.” Like that one?
FRANKLYN: I like that one a lot. [Laughs]
POVICH: I know it’s called Daddy Issues , but let’s talk about your mother. How do you get along with her?
FRANKLYN: She’s my best friend. She just moved into an apartment a 10-minute walk from me. You could argue there’s a little codependency there, but I’m incredibly close with her.
POVICH: And she approves of your life these days?
FRANKLYN: Very much, and she is excited for this book.
POVICH: Did she approve of your life when you were doing the podcast with Alex?
FRANKLYN: Well, there’s a scene in the book where she listens to the first three episodes and calls me and asks me who was able to listen and hear. And I said, “I guess everyone on the internet.” She had a minor freak out, and then when I told her it was doing well, she famously said, “Okay, fine. Just block everyone from Utah.”
POVICH: Oh, I see. Because that’s where you grew up. I would think that people in Utah listening to Call Her Daddy would kind of raise their eyebrows.
FRANKLYN: I think they would do more than raise their eyebrows. They would internally combust. But Utah has come a long way since then.
POVICH: How’s Sofia with an F doing these days?
FRANKLYN: It’s doing great. I still podcast, but I’m trying different avenues alongside that.
FRANKLYN: Well, I like to cook, but I don’t necessarily know how. [Laughs] But that’s the fun part, people are going to learn how to cook alongside me.
POVICH: Do you have somebody teaching you or are you doing it on your own?
FRANKLYN: Well, I know how to use an air fryer and a rice cooker. I’ve got that down to a T, and I can make an incredible simple salad, but people are not teaching me quite yet.
POVICH: Sure. Just get into ChatGPT and you can do anything.
FRANKLYN: Thank you. That was kind of the plan for my career trajectory.
POVICH: You think your life is a little different now since you got married?
FRANKLYN: I thought that when I was planning a wedding with Italian wedding planners whilst writing a book, my life was about to completely calm down after the wedding, and that has turned out to not be the case.
POVICH: Well, I guess not when you put out a memoir and everybody’s talking to you about it. You knew that this was going to happen, right?
FRANKLYN: I didn’t know the book was going to get this amount of press.
POVICH: When my wife wrote her memoir, it was very cathartic. Was it the same for you?
FRANKLYN: Yeah. It’s what I would call a traumatic therapy. When you’re writing about it—and I’m sure your wife felt this way—it’s difficult. You’ll find that in order to write a scene you have to remember details and put yourself back in that room. What did it smell like? What did it feel like? And that could be a bit jarring, but on the other end of it was very therapeutic.
POVICH: Even when it came to the failures?
FRANKLYN: Absolutely. It’s when you live your life in a place of denial that it’s not good. It’s good to own them.
POVICH: So when it came to the breakup with you and Alex, you feel that you were betrayed and their side says, “Well, you kind of walked away.”
POVICH: I read the prologue. It says that her husband called up and threatened to sue you. And apparently their response is they didn’t do that, but I guess that’s for the eye of the beholder, right?
FRANKLYN: Well, I don’t think it’s the eye of the beholder. I experienced the phone call, and that would be a pretty crazy fabrication on my part.
POVICH: I see. So now the book is out. This could be a big bestseller. Are you expecting it?
FRANKLYN: I think there’s a high chance. I was shooting in Soho the other day, and the amount of people that came up to me and it’s not, “Oh, I listened to your show,” anymore. It’s, “I can’t wait to read your book.” I was pretty taken aback by that.
POVICH: If it doesn’t reach the expectations that you imagine, you’re okay with that?
FRANKLYN: No. I’ll never resurface. [Laughs]
POVICH: Sofia, I thought you just told me that this was very therapeutic, and that after you finished it you felt really good about it. Isn’t that enough? [Laughs]
FRANKLYN: I guess I worked too hard to not. Listen, if it doesn’t make it, will I be okay? Yes. I’ve experienced many highs and lows in my career, but I’ve also worked incredibly hard to make it on that list. But the other thing about the book is that, to me, it screams movie or TV series. It has all the makings of that.
FRANKLYN: Well, I want you to say, “I agree.” I want you to go on the record and say, “I agree with you.” [Laughs]
POVICH: Hey, I’m about to say I agree with anything you say, Sofia. I’ve got these questions for you because these are the questions I ask on my podcast, okay?
POVICH: What’s the absolute worst piece of career advice any powerful person gave you right before you became famous?
FRANKLYN: To not write a memoir and to write a manual on how to navigate your 20s, and also how to land a guy.
POVICH: So that was a bad piece of advice because you did the memoir instead. Very good. What’s the most embarrassing failure that nobody knows about? Maybe it was dating some person or something.
FRANKLYN: Oh, but people know about that. That’s the problem, I share a lot about my life.
POVICH: So, do you regret sharing all of that when you were younger?
FRANKLYN: No. I cringe at certain soundbites, but I don’t regret it.
POVICH: All right. Do you ever re-watch any of Call Her Daddy ?
POVICH: I think the tone of that “no” says a lot. When you were at your lowest point and almost quit, who was the one person who kept you in the game?
POVICH: So Sofia, I’m going to end this way. In The New York Times article, you apparently said, when you have to do an interview, you like to have a drink. No longer?
FRANKLYN: Are you asking me if I’m drunk right now? I have not had a sip of alcohol yet. It is only 11:40 in the morning.
POVICH: Okay, but if we were doing this at five o’clock somewhere, you might have had a sip.
FRANKLYN: I no longer feel the need to do that.
POVICH: It’s great to talk to you. Good luck on the book. I hope it’s a big bestseller, Sofia.
FRANKLYN: Thank you so much, and thank you for reading it. I would love to come on your podcast one day.
POVICH: Well, we might have to make that happen.
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